(ANGLO-JUDAICA)

AUCTION 50 | Thursday, February 24th, 2011 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Hebrew Printed Books, Manuscripts, Graphic & Ceremonial Art Including: The Alfonso Cassuto Collection of Iberian Art

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Lot 26

(ANGLO-JUDAICA)

PRIESTLEY, JOSEPH. Letters to the Jews; Inviting Them to an Amicable Discussion of the Evidences of Christianity [conversionist polemic]. FIRST EDITION. pp. (4), 54, (2). Birmingham, 1786. * BOUND WITH: LEVI, DAVID. Letters to Dr. Priestly, in Answer to Those He Addressed to the Jews; Inviting Them to an Amicable Discussion of the Evidences of Christianity. Second Edition. pp. 103, (1). London: J. Johnson, 1787. * PRIESTLEY, JOSEPH. Letters to the Jews. Part II. Occasioned by Mr. David Levi's Reply to the Former Letters. pp. (4), 56. Birmingham, 1787. * LEVI, DAVID. Letters to Dr. Priestley, in Answer to His Letters to the Jews, Part II. Occasioned by Mr. David Levi's Reply to the Former Part. pp. (4), 159, (1). London, 1789 Signature removed from opening title, trace foxed. Contemporary half-calf over marbled boards, rubbed. 8vo Roth, Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica, p. 260, no.23, 24 and p. 262, no. 36

Est: $800 - $1,000

PRICE REALIZED $1,600

Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), English natural scientist and Enlightenment theologian, most famous for his isolation of oxygen in the gaseous state, was instrumental in founding Unitarianism, in England whose church accords to Jesus the status of a prophet only - as opposed to the notions of Trinitarianism. Priestley believed that this subdued form of Christianity would be acceptable to Jews. David Levi (1742-1801), English Hebraist and polemicist, was the first Jew to write in defense of his fellow-Jews in the English language. In his Letters to Dr. Priestley, he rejected the attempts of the noted scholar to convert Jews to Christianity by refuting Priestley's supposed evidences