(The Elder). Synagoga Judaica.

BUXTORF, JOHANNES.

Johann Paul Krautzen

Frankfurt & Leipzig

1738

Second edition. Double-page engraved frontispiece of synagogue interior. 22 exquisite illustrations of rites and customs. Double-page title in red and black.

Important illustrations depicting the ceremonies and life-cycle observances of the Jews of 18th century Germany. Johannes Buxtorf I (1564-1629), Christian Hebraist and Bible scholar, served as Professor of Hebrew at the University of Basle. Though certainly knowledgeable of Judaism, Buxtorf takes a dim view of the religion in his work Synagoga Judaica. The present “new edition” of Synagoga Judaica was compiled by the author’s son, Johannes Buxtorf II (1599-1664), who succeeded his father in the chair of Bible and Hebrew Studies at the University of Basle. First published in 1661, it incorporates part of Leon da Modena’s work on Jewish ceremonies, Historia de’ Riti Ebraici (1637). See A. Rubens, A Jewish Iconography (1981), p. xiii; EJ, Vol. IV, col. 1543.