Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This book explores how Christians understood the meaning and significance of Jewish books at the beginning of the 16th century. The book tells the story of the so-called Pfefferkorn affair, the attempt to confiscate and burn all Jewish post-biblical literature in the Holy Roman Empire in the years 1509-10. The author follows the fate of the confiscated books and their examination by a commission of experts and explores how Christians a convert, an Emperor, the members of city councils, an inquisitor, many theologians, and a hebraist perceived Jewish scholarship and knowledge.
Synopsis
This book explores the conflicting perceptions that Christians held of the meaning and significance of Jewish books at the beginning of the 16th century - a time when, following their general expulsion from many countries and territories, there were fewer Jews in western and central Europe than in the previous thousand years. The book tells the story of the so-called Pfefferkorn affair: a tenacious campaign led by the German Johann Pfefferkorn - previously a Jew and converted to Christianity - to confiscate and burn all Jewish post-biblical literature in the Holy Roman Empire in the years 15091510. The author follows the fate of the confiscated books and their examination by a commission of experts, exploring how Christians perceived Jewish scholarship and knowledge and the consequences of those perceptions.