(Theobaldus?). Thalmut - Objectiones in dicta Thalmut seductoris Judeorum.

(TALMUD)

Johann Prüss

(Strassburg

1488)

FIRST EDITION. Bright Condition.

Goff T-12; Hain 15231; BMC I-125

Rare first edition of an important anti-Talmudic incunable. A polemical refutation of what the anonymous author (said to be a certain Theobaldus, a Parisian subprior) calls blasphemies, calumnies and errors. Like other anti-Talmudic polemicists, he takes Talmudic figures of speech and rhetorical devices quite literally. Thus, the Talmudic emphasis on the importance of Talmudic study, expressed in the suggestion that God Himself should study the Talmud, is asserted by him to be a blasphemy, implying that God’s knowledge and understanding is not complete - viz. His need to study. As for error, Theobaldus says, the Talmud claim that its detractors will be punished, yet the King of France caused all the books of the Talmud in his realm to be burned, and suffered no punishment for it.” A.J. Karp. From the Ends of the Earth: Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress (1991) p.43.