Auction 93 Part 1 - Manuscripts, Prints and Engravings, Objects and Facsimiles, from the Gross Family Collection, and Private Collections

Birkat HaMazon for Jews and Christians – Missionary Book – Printed by Paul Fagius, Isny, 1542

Opening: $1,000
Sold for: $1,625
Including buyer's premium

Precationes Hebraicae (Hebrew prayers) – Birkat HaMazon, with an abridgement of Sepher Aemana. Isny (southern Germany): Paul Fagius, 1542. Latin and Hebrew.
Text of Birkat HaMazon in Hebrew, with Latin translation and commentary, alongside an "emended" Christian version of passages of Birkat HaMazon, in which Jewish motifs were exchanged for Christian–Messianic motifs. This is followed by an essay in Hebrew and Latin – "What Prevents Jews from Believing", a shortened version of an antisemitic essay published by Paul Fagius in Sepher Aemana, a missionary book presented as the work of a Jew proving the veracity of Christianity (though it was presumably composed by Fagius himself).


[32] pages (gatherings: A–C4, A4). 19.5 cm. Good–fair condition. Stains, including dampstains and traces of past dampness, with mold. Leaves trimmed with damage to printed marginal notes. Handwritten inscriptions. New binding.


Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, NHB.144.

Research Books – Jewish Customs, Books with Engravings
Research Books – Jewish Customs, Books with Engravings