|
The New York Public Library, Dorot Jewish Division
| |
Sefer Nitsahon
by Yom Tov Lipmann Muelhausen
(MS, Central Europe, 17th century).
Compiled in 1390 by the great rabbinic authority of medieval Prague, the widely-read Book of Victory was risqué enough that it circulated only in manuscript for 250 years. Throughout this time, it remained the main recourse for Jews in need of arguments to refute the Christological interpretation of Hebrew Scriptures of those who sought their conversion. The book was first printed in the seventeenth century (once in full, edited by T. Hackspan, Altdorf, 1644, and once in part, edited by J.C. Wagenseil, Altdorf, 1681, ironically enough, in both cases, by Christians with a counter-counter-missionary agenda). The first printing of Nitsahon by and for Jews was not ventured until the beginning of the eighteenth century in Amsterdam, when the city's reputation as prototypical haven of free speech was at its height.
|
