The Origin of Christian Hebraism
PAULUS de Sancta Maria.
Scrutinium scripturarum. [(Colophon:) Mainz, Peter Schoeffer, 7 January 1478.]
Chancery folio, ff. [217] (of 218); [a–b10 c12 d–k10 l8 m–r10 s12 t–x10 y6] (without final blank [y6]); gothic letter, first heading and colophon printed in red, woodcut printer’s device in red below colophon, initials supplied in red with purple penwork decoration and marginal extensions, red paraphs and manuscript headlines, yellow initial strokes, traces of manuscript quiring and ink notes for the rubricator (see below); [a]1 dust-stained and frayed at fore-edge, some scattered staining, final leaf dampstained with chip to fore-edge; bound in late nineteenth-century blue pebble-grained morocco over wooden boards, Schoeffer device blocked in gilt to front board, spine lettered directly in gilt; spine somewhat sunned; early ink inscription to [a]1r (deleted in ink), contemporary marginal annotations to a few pages, armorial bookplate of John Vertue (1826–1900) to front pastedown.
Fifth edition (first Strasbourg, not after May 1470), the first published by Peter Schoeffer in Mainz, of this influential treatise of Christian Hebraism cited by Erasmus, Thomas More, Luther, and Reuchlin, among others, by the Spanish converso bishop Paulus de Sancta Maria (c. 1351–1435). Our copy retains the printer’s instructions to the rubricator.
Originally a rabbi and scholar named Solomon ha-Levi, Paulus de Sancta Maria (or Paulus Burgensis) converted to Christianity just before the 1391 series of massacres of Jews in Spain and became instrumental in the proselytising of Spanish Jews, eventually being appointed Bishop of Burgos in 1415.
His dialogue Search of the Scriptures (a title taken from John 5:39, which begins ‘Scrutamini scripturas’) recruits not just the Hebrew Bible but also the Talmud and other Jewish texts and pits the Christian Paul against the Jewish Saul. Paul expounds the idea that Jewish conversos should be proud of their Jewish heritage because of the obvious trajectory from Judaism towards Christianity, while also utilising quotations from the Talmud to support Christianity against Jewish beliefs. Although filled with views which were used by Alfonso de Spina, Geronimo de Sante Fé, and other Spanish writers hostile to the Jews, this work of polemic also acted as a conduit for the rabbinic tradition: ‘Its introduction of rabbinic esotericism provided its Latin-reading audience new historical and theological grounds for the integration of rabbinic authority within Christian scholarship and history. In doing so, it embodied what could be considered a distinct “converso voice,” which challenged the customary religious boundaries between Judaism and Christianity’ (Yisraeli). It was a text used by Johann Reuchlin in the early sixteenth century to justify the preservation of sacred Hebrew texts, against those who would have had them all destroyed.
This edition is a page-for-page reprint of the two earlier Strasbourg editions by Johann Mentelin of c. 1470 and c. 1474. As this is a tall copy retaining some deckle edges, we are afforded an insight into the modes of interaction between printer and rubricator: traces of tiny instructions in ink indicating the headlines for the rubricator appear at the top of several leaves, as well as tiny letters in the margins for the decorated initials, and some manuscript signatures. The penwork decoration for several of the initials incorporates sketches of a man’s head in profile facing left. The rubricator has also corrected the text on the first page of chapter XV, where the names of the characters (Magister and Discipulus) were transposed in the printing.
HC 10766; BMC I 34; GW M29976; Goff P205; BSB-Ink P-48; Bod-inc P-048; ISTC ip00205000. See Yisraeli, ‘From Christian Polemic to a Jewish-Converso Dialogue: Jewish Skepticism and the Rabbinic-Christian Traditions in the Scrutinium Scrupturarum’ in Medieval Encounters 24 (2018), pp. 160–196.