Description: Throughout early sixteenth century Germany, attempts were made to confiscate and destroy Jewish books, in order to end the practice of Judaism throughout the empire. An unlikely champion of Judaism emerged in Johannes Reuchlin, who wrote a passionate defense of Jewish writings and legal rights in 1510. Now commonly called "Germany's first humanist," Reuchlin laid the foundation for the first Christian study of Jewish history and theology, and for Luther's nascent Reformation movement. David H. Price offers a compelling study of Reuchlin's writings and their enduring impact on Jewish-Christian relations.
Review Quotes: "Richly detailed yet lucid and eminently readable...Price's study is refreshingly balanced in its judgements. He has painstakingly researched original sources and the voluminous previous scholarship in several languages, and has compressed a thorough analysis of the complexities of the topic into a mere 230 pages...Price's penetrating study is an outstanding book with much to offer historians of humanism and the Reformation."--Times Literary Supplement
--Steven Ozment, author of A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People
"This book represents heroic labor and genuine concern to elucidate one of the most readily acknowledged but imperfectly understood moments in the relationship between Diaspora Judaism and Christianity. . . Based on thorough knowledge of the published literature and new research in archives in Germany and elsewhere, Price provides an impressively authoritative account of anti-Judaism on the eve of the Reformation. This carefully-organized work has much to offer to historians in Jewish Studies and in early-modern Christianity, as well as the advanced student of that brand of humanism usually associated with Erasmus."--Ralph Keen, Schmitt Professor of history, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago"Price's monumental study is well-researched...Price convincingly refutes Heiko A. Oberman's attempt of thirty years ago to shatter Reuchlin's progressive image as friend of the Jews. One may fully agree with the endorsers on the back dust jacket that Recuhlin appears as a modern progressive, set against the background of late medieval andi-Judaism (Steve Ozment). Based on thorough knowledge of the published literature and new research in archives, Price provides an impressive account of anti-Judaism on the eve of the Reformation. The book has 'much to offer' (Ralph Keen). Indeed!"--Sixteenth Century Journal