LUNDIUM,. JOHANNES [LUND, JOHAN].

Für Augen gestellet, in einer ausführlichen Beschreibung des gantzen levitischen Priesterthums. Und fünff unterschiedenen Büchern: Es handelt deren I. Von der Stiffts-Hütten ; II. Von dem Tempel; III. Von den Hohen- und andern Priestern; IV. Von den Leviten; V. Von dem täglichen Gottesdienst der alten Hebräer. Samt einem Vorbericht Henici Muhlii. Verlegts Gottfried Liebernickel, Hamburg 1701. Folio. (38)+1090+(136) pages. Illustrated with 20 full page engravings, 4 folded, doublepage engravings [one opposite p. 216 with a large tear missing appr. half a leaf) and 14 smaller engravings, placed between the text leaves. Also engravings in the text. The frontespiece portrait of Lund is missing, and the plate opposite this [in front of the titleleaf] is loose and with some tearing along the edges, also inside the print. Bound in a contemporary full vellum binding with handwritten title to the spine. One text leaf with a large closed tear. Generallt a bit of creasing and wear to the edges of the various plates. Last flyleaf torn. Old stamp to the titleleaf [Prof. Lejeune, Kôln].

* Danish-German clergyman Johan Lund [1638-1686] used most of his life to gather information about Jewish religion thorugh the ages, but died before he himself could publish the work. It was posthumously released in 1695-96, but was a massive success due to the immense amount of knowledge in it, and was reprinted six times during the next 40 years. Lund was also very good at drawing and has made the sketches for the numerous plates himself.
** Interesting provenance: The copy has belonged to top nazi doctor and professor Fritz Lejeune [1892-1966], who had been a member of the German nazi Party from 1923. His knowledge about book collecting made him a top man in the Nazi theft of book collections and the so-called Aryanization and liquadation of antique dealers in the Third Reich in 1938/39. He was arrested in Wien in 1945, but was unable to return to a university career after the war.