Der Gantz Jüdisch Glaub [The Complete Jewish Belief]

MARGARITHA, ANTON.

(Melachior Lotther)

(Leipzig)

1531

Second (“expanded and improved”) edition. German text. Woodcut vignette on title with five further woodcut illustrations by Jan de Breu. Initial letters within historiated woodcut vignettes by Hans Holbein. Sporadic use of Hebrew. Wide-margined copy.

Freimann, p.148; Rosenberger Catalogue, Judaica (HUC, 1971), p.385, fig.107; Rubens 228-232; Carlebach, pp. 186-7 (figs. 12-13.)

The author was born c.1490 and converted to Catholicism in 1522, later becoming a Protestant, (his name is a corruption of the family surname of Margoliouth). This libelous and pernicious tract had a deep influence upon Martin Luther who made much use of it in his own calumnious writings. Here, Margaritha ridicules Jewish religious faith and practice and accuses the Jews of harboring treasonous sentiments hostile to the Christian societies in which they live. What gave Margaritha particular credibility was that he was no ordinary Jew, but was indeed the son of Samuel Margoliouth, Chief Rabbi of the City of Regensburg, the Empire’s most distinguished Jewish community. Prof. Elisheva Carlebach has dealt extensively with this work which she describes as a “sixteenth-century bestseller.” See Divided Souls (2001) pp. 55-6, 63-64, 179-182; EJ, Vol. XI, cols. 958-9.