The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the Several Nations of the Known World

(PICART, BERNARD)

London

1731-37

Six volumes. Numerous engraved plates, most with multiple subjects, some double-page or folding. With plates in Vol. I depicting contemporary Jewish life in Holland. Text in English

Rubens 438-57

An invaluable pictorial record of Jewish life in 18th century Holland. One of the most striking illustrated books of the 18th-century. “Bernard Picart was the outstanding professional illustrator of the first third of the eighteenth century, an age during which the designs for the finest illustrated books were typically drawn by leading painters. He worked for the most part in the fading baroque tradition, but there are elements in his immense production which herald the new age.” G.N. Ray, Art of the French Illustrated Book (1986), p. 7. Part One of Volume I concerns the Ceremonies and Customs of the Jews (pp. 25-235). The text was “translated from the Italian of Leo (sic!) of Modena, a Rabbi of Venice, by M. De Simonville.” The reference is to Leone da Modena's Historia de' riti Ebraici (Paris, 1637), written at the request of the English Ambassador to Venice, for presentation to King James I. See EJ, Vol. XII, col. 204