Templo Hierosolymitano.

LEON, JACOB JUDAH (TEMPLO).

Jacob Muller

Helmstadt

1665

First Latin edition. Translation prepared by Johann Saubert. Additional engraved title-page. Engraved portraits by Salom d’Italia of the Author and Duke of Brunswick; three folding leaves, the first two being ground-plans of the Temple and the third a view of the Temple; three additional engraved plates of the furnishings and clothing of the Temple. Letter and poem by the Author in Hebrew.

A.K. Offenberg, Bibliography of Works by Templo, no. 6.

Jacob Judah Leon was a rabbi and Sephardic scholar in Middelburg in Zeeland and later in Amsterdam. He became famous for his model of the Temple but he also made a model of its tented precursor, the Tabernacle of Moses. The volume here is a Latin description with fine illustrations. Leon deals with the design and construction of the Tabernacle and its priestly management, as well as the camp of the Israelites in their wandering journey led by Moses. The model of the Tabernacle was an added attraction in the successful commercial exhibition of Leon’s Temple. Leon was so associated in the public mind with his model of the Temple that he was given the name ‘Templo’. The model was displayed with great success in Amsterdam, while his book was translated and published in eight languages. This edition is a Latin translation of 1665 by Johannes Saubertus, with fine plates. It is an account of the Temple and its contents, and of the nearby Palace of Solomon and the Antonia Tower, and could equally well serve as a description of the model. See J. Bennett & S. Mandelbrote, Bodleian Library Catalogue, The Garden, The Ark, The Tower