Obj. ID: 38015 Sota by Joh. Christophor Wagenseil, Altdorf bei Nürnberg, 1674
sub-set tree:
This text was prepared by William Gross:
Sota, Hoc est: Liber Mischnicus De Uxore Adulterii Suspecta, Una cum Libri en Jacob Excerptis Gemarae Versione Latina, & Commentario perpetuo, Joh. Christophori Wagenseilii. Altdorf [Altdorfii Noricorum], 1674. Hebrew and Latin.
This volume is from Mishnayot, tractate Sotah, in Hebrew, with accompanying Latin translation and commentary. The frontispiece is a full-page illustration of the sotah being taken to be tested by the priests. Numerous additional illustrations, several being full page images
The tractate's Latin translation and commentary were supplied by the Christian Hebraist Johann Christoph Wagenseil (1633-1705). This is the first of several tractates he translated. His motivation, partially missionary, was also to add Talmud to the curriculum of Christian scholars.
On the one hand Wagenseil confuted Christian charges that the Talmud was blasphemous, senseless and jumbled, opposed blood libels, and maintained that Catholic censors had distorted the Talmudic text. On the other hand, his most important work was a collection of works written by Jews for use in Jewish-Christian disputations and controversies, to be able to refute Jewish objections to Christianity.
The volume contains numerous engraved illustrations, many of them full page. It opens with a full –page illustration of the Sotah being taken by the priests to be tested. Among the other illustrations are: the priest wearing tallit and tefillin; tefillin with their head and arm straps; magen davids; halizah shoes; coins, and an undressed woman with skull and cross.
[48], 1234, 88 pp [10] plates