‎BECK,M.F. ‎
‎Monumenta Antiqua Judaica, Augustae Vindel. reperta, & enarrata, cum Mantissa III. Monum. vetustorum Roman., operis Velseriani de antiquis Monum. August. appendice quadam. Studio Matthiae Friderici Beckii. ‎

‎Augsburg, (Augustae Vindel.), Apud Viduam Theoph. Goebelii, Typis Koppmayerianis impressa, 1686. ‎

Reference : 120505

‎8vo. 62,(2) p., 2 engraved plates. Modern marbled boards. 16 cm (Ref: VD17 1:060593L) (Details: Title in red and black. Occasional Hebrew texts and inscriptions. Two engraved plates of two sides of the four-sided Roman monument of one Aelius Montanus Haederanus found in Augsburg, and erected in the garden of the Aedes Peutingeriana; good quality paper) (Condition: Two plates depicting two sides of the four-sided Roman monument have been removed) (Note: The German orientalist Matthias Friedrich Beck, 1649-1701, studied in Jena oriental languages and literature. In 1672 he received a stipendium from the city of Augsburg to finish his studies. From 1677 onward he played an important role in this city. He is said to have had a great knowledge of Hebrew and other Semitic languages. (ADB 2, 218). In the first 44 p. of this booklet 8 medieval Hebrew inscriptions which were to be found in the city of Augsburg, are elaborately discussed. In the appendix Beck publishes 3 inscriptions which had escaped one way or the other the attention of the Augsburg humanist Marcus Velser. Marcus Velser, or Velserus, 1558-1614, was a city official of Augsburg (Patricius Augustanus & Duumvir) and humanist. He contributed e.g. to the great Corpus of ancient inscriptions of Janus Gruter, which was published in 1602. He also corresponded with the famous J. Scaliger. Velserus wrote about the history of his native city. Augsburg, or in Latin Augusta Vindelicorum was founded by the Romans in 15 BC. Beck tries in his treatise to reconstruct the history of the Jews in Augsburg from early medieval times. Before that he sketches the history of the diaspora ever since the destruction of the s econd temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Beck looks for Jewish traces in the topography, and investigates offical texts and annals of the city, written during the Middle Ages. Beck was certainly not an anti-semite. He compiles from all kinds of local texts a very sad list of miserable occurrences. He never accuses the Jews of anything, but on the other hand he also never condems the cruel treatment of the Jews by the inhabitants of the city or their representatives. Beck explains that, because no effort has hitherto been put into the collecting of Jewish inscriptions in Germany, he decided to publish 8 Jewish inscriptions found in the city. He elaborately comments upon the linguistic and historical background of the inscriptions. The oldest inscription dates according to Beck from 693, the second from 991. The last one he discusses dates from 1446. Beck's best known work is Martyrologium ecclesiae Germanicae pervetustum, Augsburg 1687. See for the history of Jewish Augsburg and its Jewish monuments: Yehuda Shenef, 'When even cedars fall in flames ' Some explanatory notes on history and remnants of the Medieval Jewish Cemetery of Augsburg called Judenkirchhof, 2011) (Collation: A-D8, leaf D8 recto errata, leaf D8 verso blank) (Photographs on request) ‎