Christliche Kirchen-Gebether [Christian prayer-book]
AUCTION 72 |
Thursday, March 16th,
2017 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters, Holy Land Maps & Fine Art
Lot 169
(LITURGY / MISSIONARY).
Christliche Kirchen-Gebether [Christian prayer-book]
Prague: Carolo-Ferdinandaeischen Buchdruckerei 1720
Est: $600 - $900
PRICE REALIZED $600
For the most part, it was Protestant theologians and missionaries who made use of Yiddish in their efforts to missionize amongst the Jews in the early modern period. The present volume is a rare example of a Catholic attempt to make the words of Christian prayer accessible to the newly converted. This first edition used square Hebrew characters, presented opposite the German text. By the time a second edition appeared in 1755, the entire work, save for the title page, was printed in waybertaytsh.
See Aya Elyada, A Goy Who Speaks Yiddish: Christians and the Jewish Language in Early Modern Germany (2012).