Wolf Ehrenfried von Reizenstein. Der Vollkommene Pferde-Kenner [“The Complete Horse-Expert”].

(GERMANY)

Haueisen

Anspach

1780

Second edition. Two volumes bound in one. German with smattering of Hebrew. With frontispiece and 27 engraved plates.

Comprehensive equestrian manual with sections on the general characteristics of horse buying, breeding, riding, training, grooming, veterinary care and horse tack. Most significant for Yiddish historical linguistics is the appendix to volume one, which contains a glossary of over 1500 transliterated Yiddish and Hebrew terms and five sample dialogues intended to aid Gentiles in understanding the horse trade dialect used by Jews. Commerce in livestock was a predominantly Jewish occupation in Central and Eastern Europe (see EJ XI, 411-12).