EXTENSIVE COMMENTARY ON HEBREW CUSTOMS, 1748

CARPZOV, Johann Gottlob. Apparatus Historico Criticus Antiquitatum Sacri Codicis et Gentis Hebraeae: Uberrimis Annotationibus in Thomae Goodwini Mosen et Aaronem. Frankfurt: Officina Gleditschiana, 1748. Thick quarto, contemporary full vellum. $500.

First edition of Carpzov’s commentary on Godwin’s Moses and Aaron, with engraved frontispiece portrait of Carpzov.

Carpzov’s edition of Thomas Godwin’s Moses and Aaron: Civil and Ecclesiastical Rites Used by the Ancient Hebrews (1625) was translated for a Continental audience and furnished with a lengthy commentary. Schoolmaster Thomas Godwin’s work on Hebrew customs was used as a text book for several generations of his students. “Moses and Aaron attracted the attention of several distinguished commentators, among whom may be mentioned David Jennings and the learned Hottinger” (DNB). Jennings based his famous Jewish Antiquities (1766) on Godwin. Johann Gottlob Carpzov, professor of Oriental languages at Leipzig and first pastor at Lübeck, was a leading Old Testament scholar of his time. Title printed in red and black, engraved title vignette, woodcut head- and tailpieces, text in double columns. See Lowndes, 905; Graesse III:101. Contemporary ownership signatures, with extensive marginal annotations throughout.

Very little age-wear to either text or binding. An extremely good copy.