Johann Buxtorf, Impresario of Hebrew and Jewish Books

Grafton, Anthony
Weinberg, Joanna

Johann Buxtorf was a Hebrew scholar of prodigious energy and learning who believed that Christian scholars must master not only the Hebrew Bible but also the entire range of Jewish writing. He surveyed a vast corpus of Jewish texts and used them to describe the customs and ceremonies of Ashkenazic Jews. Working as an editor and a censor, he strove – not always successfully – to produce editions of the Hebrew Bible and prayerbook that contained the best of Jewish learning but were purified of anti-Christian sentiments. This book uses unpublished sources of many kinds, from Buxtorf’s marginal notes in his Jewish books to letters to him in Hebrew from Jewish print professionals, to tell his story.