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The zenith of 17th-century Hebrew typography in Utrecht

LEUSDEN, Johannes.
Philologus Hebraeus, in quo pleraeque quaestiones generales philologico-hebraicae, concernentes textum Hebraeum veteris test. dilucidè pertractantur. In fine adjunctus est catalogus Hebraicus & Latinus sexcentorum & tredecim praeceptorum, in quae totus Pentateuchus ex sententiâ Judaeorum divisus est.

Title in red & black, woodcut endpieces and initials. Printed in Roman and Hebrew type.

Title in red & black, woodcut endpieces and initials. Printed in Roman and Hebrew type.



Utrecht, Meinardus van Dreunen, 1657. 4to. 19th-century half black cloth with marbled boards. Title in red & black, woodcut endpieces and initials. Printed in Roman and Hebrew type. (22 incl. title), 447 (9) pp. [Collation: a-c4 (-c4, blank?) A-3L4].

Second edition of Johannes Leusden's first great work, the Philologus Hebraeus. It's a comprehensive study of Judaism and Jewish life. There are chapters on the Kabbalah and the Kabbalists, the Pentateuch, apocrive Books, the origin of Hebrew language, etc. The first edition appeared 1656, also at Meinardus van Dreunen in Utrecht. According to Zwarts, this work is important because of the very nice Hebrew type setting, which appears here for the first time in two columns, in the honouring poem to C. Cuperus on c2 recto. The Hebrew typography is at it's finest in the Hebrew-Latin catalogue, starting on page 365. Zwarts considers this print of Van Dreunen as the zenith of 17th-century Hebrew typography in Utrecht.
Johannes Leusden (Utrecht,  April 26, 1624 - Utrecht, September 30, 1699) was a Dutch Calvinist theologian and orientalist. He studied in Utrecht and Amsterdam and was a Professor of Hebrew in Utrecht since 1653. He was a dedicated follower of Prof. Voetius and his fame drew many students to Utrecht. He was in correspondence with Crescentius Mather, a famous minister from Boston and Rector of Harvard College, Cambridge, New-England, about the progress of the mission among the American Indians. Leusden was one of the most prominent Bible experts of his time, and wrote several works about the Bible and about Hebrew philology, a.o. Philologus Hebraeus, (1656), Philologus Hebraeo-Mixtus, (1663),  Philologus Hebraeo-Latino-Belgicum  (1668), Philologus Hebraeo-Graecus (1670) and Korte Hebreusche en Chaldeusche taalkonst (1686). In 1660, together with the Amsterdam rabbi and book printer Joseph Athias, he published his Biblia Hebraica, the first edition of the Hebrew Bible with numbered verses.

Good copy.- (Front cover and spine loosening; lacks c4, which is a blank leaf because no text is missing; Worldcat mentions (20), 447, (9) pp. for this work).
Zwarts, De Hebreeuwsche typografie in Utrecht (1938), pp. 16-17; NNBW IX, cols. 601-2.

Related Subjects: 17th Century  Hebraica  Hebraica & Judaica  History  Judaica  Typography  Utrecht 

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