Stephen Burnett's book traces the rise of Christian Hebraism in Western Europe against the backdrop of the Reformation. It is based on the approximately 2,000 imprints published between 1500 and 1660 in which there was “a substantial amount of Hebrew type” (5). The comprehensive list of these books compiled by Burnett allows him to identify the most important Hebraist authors, publishers and works (Appendices 1–2). In addition, by considering the printing, reading, and collection of these imprints, Burnett reconstructs the larger context of why Christian Hebraism flourished in the sixteenth century.
Like other scholars, Burnett points to the development of Renaissance humanism and Protestantism to explain the sharp growth in Christian interest in Hebrew and Judaica at this time. Burnett expands this narrative by discussing patronage, princely collections, and the increased university positions in Hebrew among both Protestants and Catholics.
Burnett convincingly demonstrates developments in the Reformation influenced Hebraism, arguing that the process of confessionalization impacted both the scope and content of Christian Hebraism. Before 1560, Christian Hebraism was limited to a few discrete centers. Jews and converts from Judaism to Christianity were heavily involved in the project, and intimate relationships helped to fuel the production of Hebraist texts. In terms of content, 87.2% of Hebraist production comprised grammars, dictionaries, concordances, Bibles, and commentaries (95, Table 3.1; 135–136). The precision with which Burnett has calculated these figures speaks to the importance of his scholarly contribution and to the magnitude of the research he undertook for this project.
Post-confessional Hebraist works differed from the pre-1560 production. A contrast of the pre- and post-1560 production reveals a slightly broader range of works, including liturgical texts. Book catalogues from fairs and specific publishers marketed these texts to a wider audience. This second period also saw the development of Christian Hebraism “independent of Jews and Judaism” (9).
Burnett also notes confessional differences among Hebraist authors, including their educational exposure to Hebrew, employment patterns, and the degree to which they were clustered in a particular geographic location (64–79). Moreover, the kinds of books that Hebraists produced varied according to confession. Catholics, for example, wrote far more about the reliability of the biblical text; Lutherans focused on biblical interpretation, textual scholarship, and polemics; Reformed and Anglican Hebraists wrote more about the history of the biblical and Second Temple periods (275-276).
Reformation-era Hebraism was “remarkable for both its sheer size and its rather narrow scope” (135). That only a limited set of topics from the Judaica corpus were of interest to Christian Hebraists is underscored by Burnett's references to Shifra Baruchson-Arbib's work, which examines Jewish reading practices based on Jewish libraries in Mantua (La Culture livresque des Juifs d'Italie à la Fin de la Renaissance. Documents, Études, et Répertoires 66, trans. Gabriel Roth [Paris: CNRS Editions, 2001]) Whereas more than one-third of the books in Jewish libraries were liturgical, the bulk of Hebraist production was grammatical. The differences in what Jews and Christians read stemmed from the different role that Hebrew played in each culture—a language for prayer for Jews versus a linguistic skill for Christians (94–95). The divide between Jewish books and Hebraist works can also be seen in Burnett's discussion of book fair and booksellers catalogues, which advertised Christian Hebraica, but by and large did not include Jewish books (210–221). The attention that Burnett pays to the consumers of Christian Hebraism is a new and important facet of scholarship about print and reading culture.
Readers’ demand for Christian Hebraist works, which was partially born of students’ need for Hebrew textbooks, propelled the endeavor forward. Burnett explains that the reason that Christian Hebraism did not flourish even more was due to several factors, including the somewhat limited availability of Hebrew type, the smaller numbers of available proofreaders and other necessary personnel, and above all, censorship. The book treats censorship from a regional perspective. Burnett notes that in both Italy and Spain, the development of Christian Hebraism was constrained by controls on the press, especially in the Post-Tridentine period. Northern Europe, by contrast, had less censorship, and thus boasted of a more robust and publicly accessible Christian Hebraism. Like other historians of the book, Burnett demonstrates how books crossed confessional and national borders—something that, given the theological importance of these particular works, might be unexpected.
Burnett firmly establishes the significance of Hebraism for Reformation theologians. In one terrific example, he cites Martin Luther's lecture on Genesis 4:7 (the exchange between God and Cain), in which Luther cites and disagrees with the biblical commentary of Nahmanides, a medieval Jewish exegete. Luther accessed Nahmanides's commentary through Sebastian Münster's writings, rather than in the original (93). That so central a figure as Luther relied on the works of Hebraists speaks volumes as to the importance of this enterprise to Christian theologians and readers.
It is because of cultural exchanges such as this one that Burnett sees Christian Hebraists as mediators of “the contents of Jewish books for Christian readers” (93). Yet as Burnett's book demonstrates, many genres of Jewish writing were simply not of interest to Hebraists. Moreover, those materials that were of interest were by and large interpreted in ways quite different from the original intention of the Jewish authors. Additional discussion of the limited degree to which Hebraism served as a bridge between Jews and Christians would enhance Burnett's analysis of the overlaps of and differences between Christian Hebraism and Jewish book culture. This would further build on current scholarship on print culture, by stressing how readers, not just authors, provide meaning to texts.
Burnett's book is an essential resource to scholars of the Reformation, of the Jewish book, and of early modern print. Both the extensive tables and appendices and the insightful narrative will drive these fields of research forward.
