De Sepulchris Hebraeorum (Of Hebrew Sepulchers: burial practices and locations)

Nicolai, Johannes

Henrik Teering

Lugduni Batavorum [=Leiden, Holland]

1706

First Edition.Title in red and black inks, includes engraving of cornucopea. Chapter headings illuminated.Numerous engravings and foldouts of Hebrew sepulchers, including tombs of Biblical personalities (e.g Rachel, Samuel, David, and Asael). pp. 239-245 contain transcriptions from Gerrnan Jewish tombstones of the medieval period and later. Text in Latin.

Freimann, p. 189

This is an an encyclopedic work on the topic of Hebrew burial practices, culled from Jewish and non-Jewish sources. It is interspersed with citations in Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, and Greek script, typical of such books of that period. The non-Jewish author invokes the name of J. on the very first page. It is difficult to determine whether the grotesquerie on p. 243—nismatah tehei arurah be-gan eden (may her soul be cursed in the Garden of Eden)—is sheer ignorance of the Hebrew language or just a printer’s error. (Arurah, cursed, should of course read tserurah, bound.) According to Freimann, the book went through one more edition, Venice, 1767.