Cunaeus, Petrus. De Republyk der Hebreen, Of Gemeenebest der Joden [“The Republic of the Hebrews, On the Commonwealth of the Jews.”] Translated from Latin. Parts I-III (Willem Goeree, 1683-85). Part IV (Jan Roman de Jonge, 1735)

(ISRAEL, LAND OF).

Amsterdam

v.d

FIRST DUTCH EDITION. Four parts bound in four volumes. Four engraved titles. Replete with exquisite plates and maps (a total of 56), most fold-out. A crisp, clean copy

Laor, 303, 1027

Peter van der Cunaeus (1586-1638) was a professor of Latin at Leiden. His De Republica Hebraeorum was first published in Leiden in 1617.What sets his work apart from that of earlier Christian Hebraists is the fact that it is informed by Maimonides. “De Republica Hebraeorum is an essentially conventional presentation of the traditional Calvinist views on biblical antiquity and on Judaism and the Jews…The true novelty of his work, however, consists in its quarrying of the Mishneh Torah for the study [of] the ancient Jewish commonwealth.” See Aaron L. Katchen, Christian Hebraists and Dutch Rabbis (1984), p. 39. A set of the 1574 Venice edition of the Mishneh Torah had been given to Cunaeus by his friend Johannes Boreel (Borelius), who acquired the books on one of his tours of Italy. Cunaeus records in his memoirs, “I ran through the splendid treatises of Rabbi Maimonides with great enthusiasm in the most pleasant and leisurely fashion…I was so affected that I nearly turned my pen around and erased all my previous animadversions on things Jewish.” Ibid