De Mirabaud, M. Opinions des Anciens sur les Juifs [“Opinions of the Ancients Concerning the Jews.”]

(ANTISEMITICA)

n.p.

London

1769

FIRST EDITION. Two parts in single volume. From the Cassuto Collection

The Author, entitled "Sécrétaire Perpétuel de l'Académie Françoise," dredges up from Josephus' work Contra Apion, some of the oldest anti-Semitic canards, going back to the ancient Egyptian historian Manetho. Beyond that, Mirabaud scours the entire Greco-Roman literature for any derogatory statements concerning the Jews. Thus the Count de Mirabaud establishes that the Jews are alien to European society and a danger to its future. This theme was carried forward in the next century and the one thereafter, to naturalize anti-Semitism in the rhetoric of both pre-Christian and post-Christian times