Tovey, D’Blossiers. Anglia Judaica: or The History and Antiquities of the Jews in England

(ANGLO-JUDAICA)

James Fletcher

Oxford

1738

FIRST EDITION. Several documents in Latin original. Wide margined uncut copy

Roth, Magna Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica, p. 28, no. 42

Anglia Judaica, by the English clergyman D’Blossiers Tovy (1692-1745), is the first comprehensive history of the Jews of England, with especially useful information concerning the protracted negotiations between Menasseh ben Israel and Oliver Cromwell over the proposed resettlement of the Jews in England - a crucial period in Anglo-Jewish history. According to Tovey, so great were the hopes the Jews pinned on Protector Cromwell, that a certain faction among them believed Cromwell was indeed the Messiah himself (see Tovey, p. 275). See C. Roth, A Life of Menasseh Ben Israel (1945), pp. 285, 351; EJ, Vol. XV, col. 1291; EJ, Vol. VI, col. 755 (facsimile of title page)