1269

SELDEN ( John ). Uxor Ebraica, seu De nuptiis et divortiis ex jure civili

Currency:EUR Category:Antiques / Books & Manuscripts Start Price:10.00 EUR Estimated At:250.00 - 350.00 EUR
SELDEN ( John ). Uxor Ebraica, seu De nuptiis et divortiis ex jure civili

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Auction Date:2012 Oct 20 @ 11:00 (UTC+1)
Location:38 Molesworth Street, Dublin, Dublin, ., Ireland
SELDEN ( John ). Uxor Ebraica, seu De nuptiis et divortiis ex jure civili, id est, divino & Talmudico, veterum Ebraeorum libri tres. Ejusdem De successionibus ad leges Ebraeorum in bona defunctorum liber singularis : in pontificatum, libri duo. Francofurti ad Oderam : Sumptibus Jeremiae Schrey, excudit Andr. Becmanus, 1673SECOND EDITION, ENLARGED, pages (24), 136, leaves 137-144, pages 145-353, 353(bis) - 361, 364-365, 368-456, (12) : (2), 248, (9), (1, blank), complete thus, 2 parts in 1 vol, 4to, sympathetically bound in full calf antique : a very good to nice copy. Second, enlarged edition, edited by Johann Christian Beckmann. A work which provided the scholarly basis for many of the interpretations in Milton’s controversial tract, The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce. Included in this edition are 'De Successionibus in bona defunctorom ad leges Ebraeorum' and 'De Successione in Pontificatum Ebraeorum'. Selden (1584-1654), one of the foremost jurists and oriental scholars of his day, acquired a considerable reputation for his knowledge of rabbinical literature and his scholarly researches in oriental learning. He remained unmarried, perhaps fortunately, as he is said to have remarked “Tis reason, a man that will keep a wife should bee att the charge of all her Trinketts, & pay all the scores she setts him on ; hee that will keep a Monkey tis fitt hee should pay for the glasses she breakes". His treatise exhaustively examines the nature of marriage and divorce as discussed in the Torah, the Talmud, and commentaries of a host of Jewish scholars. Book 1 opens by noting that while the ‘civil laws’ of other societies came from natural law (the Noachide laws), the ‘civil law’ of the Hebrews was ‘partly Sacred Law’ commanded in the Torah ‘and partly ancestral custom and sanctions added by those who were in charge of such matters’. It then discusses unions forbidden on the grounds of consanguinity and affinity, the Karaites, the marriages of high priests and kings, and the practice of polygamy (including that of Muslims). Book 2 deals largely with betrothal, dowry, and marriage ceremonies among the Jews and gentiles, including the ancient Romans. After showing how Jewish and pagan customs of betrothal and marriage ‘passed into Christianity’, Selden turns to the practices of Greek and Latin Christians, and then to those in England, including the medieval ceremony of the Salisbury rite and the reformed one of the Book of Common Prayer. This leads to the conclusion that Christian and Jewish marriage customs, while ‘not often exactly the same’ were ‘analogous and similar’. Book 3 deals with the nature of marriage and divorce. Jewish marriage involved mutual obligations between husband and wife, including the ‘conjugal obligation’ of regular sexual intercourse; these obligations provided a framework for judging its failure. Through careful philological comparison of key texts in NT Greek with the Aramaic of the rabbinic schools' teachings on the Deuteronomic grounds for divorce, Selden finally concludes that while Jesus's teachings initially seemed within the school of Shammai, which permitted divorce only for fornication, they were actually not very far from the permissiveness of the school of Hillel which allowed it for any reasonable cause. Natural law allowed spouses to marry and divorce ‘by mutual consent’, and this position shaped the interpretations of Jewish rabbis, the early Christians, and Greek and Russian Christians. Only the highly restrictive teachings and canon laws of western Christians were portrayed as unusual and unprecedented. An open-minded reader, Selden concludes, would know what changes to make to the English law of divorce. Although less directly, this political advice advocated reforms not unlike those already proclaimed by Milton (ODNB).RELIGION; THEOLOGY; MARRIAGE; DIVORCE; LAW; HEBREW; JUDAICA; ; ; ; ;