Traitté des ceremonies superstitieuses des Juifs tant anciens que modernes [“Treatise of the Supertitious Ceremonies of Jews, Ancient as well as Modern.”]

(SPINOZA, BENEDICTUS DE).

Jacob Smith

Amsterdam

1678

French text

Kingma & Offenberg: Bibliography of Spinoza's Works up to 1800 (1985), no. 15

By ordinance of the Magistrate of Utrecht in 1678, it was forbidden not only to print, but even to own any of Spinoza's works. Consequently, this French translation bears a false title and is in fact Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. The book is a sharp critique of religion and the Bible, and favors intellectual and political freedom. See F. Bamberger, The Early Editions of Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-Polticus, in: Bibliography and Booklore (1961). A rather recent issue of Jewish Political Studies Review (Vol. 7, Nos. 1-2; Spring 1995) was devoted to Spinoza's theories as presented in the Tractatus. Scholars such as Daniel J. Elazar, George Gross, Harvey Shulman, Martin Yaffe, et al contributed articles