Revealing the Secrets of the Jews: Johannes Pfefferkorn and Christian Writings about Jewish Life and Literature in Early Modern Europe

Published by De Gruyter 2017

Revealing the Secrets of the Jews

Johannes Pfefferkorn and Christian Writings about Jewish Life and Literature in Early Modern Europe

Edited by: Jonathan Adams and Cordelia Heß

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110524345

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book presents the most recent scholarship on the sixteenth-century convert Johannes Pfefferkorn and his context. Pfefferkorn is the most (in)famous of the converts from Judaism who wrote descriptions of Jewish ceremonial life and shaped both Christian ideas about Judaism and the course of anti-Jewish polemics in the early modern period.

Rather than just rehearsing the better-known aspects of Pfefferkorn’s life and the controversy with Johannes Reuchlin, this volume re-evaluates the motives behind his activities and writings as well as his role and success in the context of Dominican anti-Jewish polemics and Imperial German politics. Furthermore, it discusses other converts, who similarly "revealed the secrets of the Jews", and contains detailed studies of the campaigns against the Talmud and other Jewish books as well as the diffusion of Pfefferkorn's books and other anti-Jewish writings throughout early modern Europe.

Revealing the Secrets of the Jews thus presents new perspectives on Jewish-Christian relations, the study of religion and Christian Hebraism, and the history of anthropology and ethnography.

compares Pfefferkorn and the works of other contemporary converts
places Pfefferkorn and his works in the context of anti-Jewish polemics of the 16th century
highlights the context and distribution of his work within early modern Europe

Author / Editor information

Jonathan Adams, Uppsala University, and Cordelia Heß, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Illustrations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgements Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
A Note on Spelling and Referencing Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xvii
Introduction
1. Jewish Life and Books under Scrutiny: Ethnography, Polemics, and Converts Jonathan Adams and Cordelia Heß Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
I. Life and campaigns
2. Johannes Pfefferkorn and Imperial Politics David H. Price Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
3. In Search of the Historical Pfefferkorn: The Missionary to the Jews, 1507–1508 Franz Posset Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
4. Johannes Pfefferkorn and the Dual Form of the Confiscation Campaign Avner Shamir Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
II. Books and dissemination
5. Pfefferkorn’s Books or the Most Rational Man in the World Jan-Hendryk de Boer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
6. Synagoga Veritas? Johannes Pfefferkorn and his Synagogue Descriptions in the buchlijn der iuden beicht Naomi Feuchtwanger-Sarig Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
7. Jew-Hatred Sells? Anti-Jewish Print Production in the German Dialects Cordelia Heß Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	121
8. “Thus shall Christian people know to punish them”: Translating Pfefferkorn into Danish Jonathan Adams Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
III. Converts, ethnography, and polemics
9. Patronage, Representation, and Conversion: Victor von Carben (1423–1515) and his Social Networks Maria Diemling Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
10. Luther’s Chief Witness: Anthonius Margaritha’s Der gantz Jüdisch glaub (1530/1531) Stephen G. Burnett Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
11. The Reception History of Ethnographic Literature about the Jews Yaacov Deutsch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
12. From Convert to Convert: Two Opposed Trends in Late Medieval and Early Modern Anti-Jewish Polemic Ryan W. Szpiech Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
13. Revealing the Absurdity of Jewish Hopes: From Polemical Ethnography to Basnage’s L’Histoire des Juifs Imanuel Clemens Schmidt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
14. Tela Ignea Satanae: Christian Scholars and the Editing of Hebrew Polemical Literature Markéta Kabůrková Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261
15. Gratias post mensam in diebus festiuis cum cantico :העברײם A New Look at an Early Sixteenth- Century Tzur Mishelo Avery Gosfield Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275
Works Attributed to Johannes Pfefferkorn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	297
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	301
Indices Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	319

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Scholars interested in medieval/early modern history, Jewish history, Jewish-Christian relations and the history of religion
Pages
- Front matter: 17
- Main content: 325
Illustrations
- Coloured Illustrations: 25
Keywords: Ethnography; conversion; Jewish books

eBook

Published: April 24, 2017
ISBN: 9783110524345

Hardcover

Published: April 24, 2017
ISBN: 9783110522549