"I have always loved the Holy Tongue": Isaac Casaubon, the Jews, and a Forgotten Chapter in Renaissance Scholarship
Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614) was one of Europe’s greatest Protestant scholars during the late Renaissance and was renowned for his expert knowledge of the early history of the church. Today, however, most of Casaubon’s books remain unread, and much of his vast archive remains unexplored. Grafton and Weinberg’s close examination of his papers reveal for the first time that Casaubon’s scholarship was broader and richer than anyone has previously suspected, and they present a Casaubon not found in earlier literature: one who used Jewish materials to illuminate, and at times to transform, scholars’ understanding of of early Christianity; and one who, at the end of his life, worked with a little-known Jewish scholar in order to master parts of the Talmud, which few Christians could study on their own. Most importantly , this book shows that a Christian scholar of the European Renaissance could explore—and develop striking sympathy and affection for—the alien world and worship of the Jews.
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"I have always loved the Holy Tongue": Isaac Casaubon, the Jews, and a Forgotten Chapter in Renaissance Scholarship
Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614) was one of Europe’s greatest Protestant scholars during the late Renaissance and was renowned for his expert knowledge of the early history of the church. Today, however, most of Casaubon’s books remain unread, and much of his vast archive remains unexplored. Grafton and Weinberg’s close examination of his papers reveal for the first time that Casaubon’s scholarship was broader and richer than anyone has previously suspected, and they present a Casaubon not found in earlier literature: one who used Jewish materials to illuminate, and at times to transform, scholars’ understanding of of early Christianity; and one who, at the end of his life, worked with a little-known Jewish scholar in order to master parts of the Talmud, which few Christians could study on their own. Most importantly , this book shows that a Christian scholar of the European Renaissance could explore—and develop striking sympathy and affection for—the alien world and worship of the Jews.
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"I have always loved the Holy Tongue": Isaac Casaubon, the Jews, and a Forgotten Chapter in Renaissance Scholarship
Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614) was one of Europe’s greatest Protestant scholars during the late Renaissance and was renowned for his expert knowledge of the early history of the church. Today, however, most of Casaubon’s books remain unread, and much of his vast archive remains unexplored. Grafton and Weinberg’s close examination of his papers reveal for the first time that Casaubon’s scholarship was broader and richer than anyone has previously suspected, and they present a Casaubon not found in earlier literature: one who used Jewish materials to illuminate, and at times to transform, scholars’ understanding of of early Christianity; and one who, at the end of his life, worked with a little-known Jewish scholar in order to master parts of the Talmud, which few Christians could study on their own. Most importantly , this book shows that a Christian scholar of the European Renaissance could explore—and develop striking sympathy and affection for—the alien world and worship of the Jews.
Anthony Grafton is the author of The Footnote, Defenders of the Text, Forgers and Critics, and Inky Fingers, among other books. The Henry Putnam University Professor of History and the Humanities at Princeton University, he writes regularly for the New York Review of Books.
Joanna Weinberg is Reader in Hebrew and Jewish Studies at the University of Oxford.
Table of Contents
Contents List of Illustrations A Note to Readers 1. Rabbi Isaac Casaubon 2. How CasaubonRead Hebrew Texts 3. Wider Horizons in Hebraic Studies 4. Casaubonand Baronio 5. The Teller and the Tale Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Appendix 3 Glossary Bibliography Acknowledgments Index