"Libellus de Judaica confessione sive sabbato afflictionis" ["Booklet of the Jewish Confession…"], by Johannes Pfefferkorn. Nuremberg: Joann Weyssenburger, [1508]. Latin.
Antisemitic work by Johannes Pfefferkorn, a convert from Judaism, calling on the Christian world to undermine Judaism and threaten the Jews with expulsion if they refuse to convert. The booklet contains descriptions of Jewish customs pertaining to Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, in particular the prayer "Avinu Malkeinu" ("Our Father, Our King", recited on the Ten Days of Penitence and fast days), which purportedly lays bare the Jewish hatred toward Christians: "Our Father, our King, wipe out every oppressor and adversary from against us / Our Father, our King, close the mouths of our adversaries and accusers...".
The book features four different woodcuts (one appearing twice, both on the title page and in the body of the text), considered to be the earliest illustrations of Jewish customs ever to be included in a printed book ("A Jewish Iconography" p. XIII; see below). For other, later woodcuts depicting Jewish customs, see lot no. 110 in the present auction (illustrated Sefer Minhagim).

The illustrations depict the synagogue on Rosh HaShanah with the blowing of the shofar; the "Tashlikh" service; Erev Yom Kippur with the custom of the penitential rooster ("tarnegol kaparot"), ritual bathing and eating; the synagogue on Yom Kippur with lashes meted out to penitents and the Priestly Blessing. In the synagogue illustrations, the women’s section appears at the bottom. In all the illustrations, the eyes of the Jewish figures are covered, in keeping with the motif of "Ecclesia et Synagoga" (lit. "Church and Synagogue") wherein Judaism is portrayed as a blindfolded woman, in juxtaposition with open-eyed Christianity – a prevalent motif in Christian art of the Middle Ages. These illustrations are seen as inspiration for the woodcuts appearing in Antonius Margaritha's well known antisemitic composition "Der gantz jüdisch Glaub" (Augsburg, 1530)
Pfefferkorn's work was originally written in German (bearing the name "Ich heyß ain büchlein der iudenpeicht") and was published in 1508 in three editions: one in German and two in Latin (of which, one was published in Cologne, and the other in Nuremberg). Woodcuts appeared in all editions, in both German and Latin. These woodcuts were identical in content, but differed slightly in form, and in several details; the present edition is the rarest of the three.

Johannes Pfefferkorn (ca. 1469-1521), a convert from Judaism to Christianity, a butcher or moneylender by profession. He was apparently arrested on charges of theft, and following his release, he and his family members were baptized in Cologne. Was active under the auspices of the monastic Dominican order, served as an adviser to the Flemish theologian Jacob van Hoogstraaten in his efforts to persecute Jews, and was a vocal advocate of the burning of all Jewish books other than the Bible. In the years 1507-1510, he published a number of stridently-worded booklets – the thrust of an unprecedented campaign against Jewish literature. These booklets sought to portray Jewish books – in particular, the Talmud – as the "source of all evil"; with this came Pfefferkorn’s unequivocal demand that they be immediately confiscated and banned.
Following the publication of his booklets, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I issued an order calling for the confiscation of Jewish books, and Pfefferkorn personally led a book-banning campaign in Frankfurt. The banning aroused opposition among a number of German scholars who argued in defense of the books in question, declaring them to contain a hidden treasury of sources underpinning Christian thought and dogma. Among these scholars was Johannes Reuchlin, who became Pfefferkorn’s personal adversary. Thanks to their protests, the book-banning was finally halted.

[10] leaves. 19.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Slight tears, incl. open tears. Worming holes mended with paper (causing minor damage to print). New binding.

Exhibitions:
· Europas Juden im Mittelalter, Speyer, Historischen Museum der Pfalz, 2004-2005.
· Only on Paper: Six Centuries of Judaica from the Gross Family Collection, Chicago, Columbia College, 2005.
· The Book of Books: Biblical Canon, Dissemination and its People, Jerusalem, Bible Lands Museum, 2013.
· Questions of Faith: Chatrooms at the Dawn of the Modern Era, Ulm, Museum of the Bible, 2016, p. 106 (illustrated).
Reference:
· Alfred Rubens, "A Jewish Iconography", London: Nonpareil, 1981, p. XIII.
· Diane Wolfthal, "Imaging the Self: Representations of Jewish Ritual in Yiddish Books of Customs", in: Eva Frojmovic, ed., "Imagining the Self, Imagining the Other". Leiden, Boston, and Cologne: Brill, 2002, pp. 189-211.
· Jonathan Adams and Cordelia Heß, eds., "Revealing the Secrets of the Jews: Johannes Pfefferkorn and Christian Writings about Jewish Life and Literature in Early Modern Europe". Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2017 (a detailed bibliography appears at the end of the volume).
· Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation: A History.New York: Penguin, 2004.

This item is documented in the Center for Jewish Art (CJA), item no. 40671.

Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, item no. NHB.330.