Richly annotated (on interleaved blanks) Hebrew 1738 Psalterium. Halle pietism work, ed. August Hermann Francke. Printed in Halle, Germany.

A fascinating work published in response to a significant movement in the Christian church; this copy bound with interleaved blank pages in which an early scholar added rich annotations on the Psalms.

This Hebrew printing of the Psalms, was edited by August Hermann Francke and published as a means of providing laypeople an affordable example of the Psalms in their original language, one of the goals of Halle Pietism.

Halle Pietism is a term used to reflect the pietism taught at the school August Hermann Francke develloped in Halle, Germany; this pietism had a number of facets but some hallmarks were: earnest study of the Bible, the laity being involved in the governance of the church, knowledge attended with acts, sympathetic and kindly treatment of disbelievers, prominence of devotional life in education, and pleasing rhetoric in teaching.

Many forms of pietism erupted from this movement through different branches and names like John Wesley and the Mennonites have the Pietism movement named as part of their influence.

In this particular copy, an eighteenth-century German scholar (as evidenced by the cursive Kurrent writing) wrote notes on many of the psalms; it's likely this person was a part of the pietism movement. I could not find a provenance name.

Bibliographic Details -

Worldcat OCLC catalogue number 718617010 (one copy, Bibliotheque Cantonale et Universitaire, Lausanne) and 78642053 (two copies, Harvard and the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem PA). Also, a copy is scanned to Hathitrust, which resides in the New York Public Library.

Physical Attributes -

Measures approx. 13.5 x 9 x 5 cm. Gatherings signed in eight (octavo). Hardcover consisting of decorative paper over pasteboard boards in the case binding style. All edges red. Title in hold hand on label on spine. Latin introduction, Hebrew text. All psalms with facing interleaved pages for notes.

Pages – Not paginated

Collation - ):(3 (likely missing the 4th leaf), A-Z8, Aa6

Condition -

See pictures. Worn case binding composed of decorative paper over pasteboard boards. Corners and edges worn, rubbing to boards/spine. Some bookseller marks on endpapers. Text block with some toning throughout with occasional rust spots. After introductory three leaves, each leaf is interleaved with a blank leaf for notes. The blank leaf where the fourth introductory leaf would have been is mounted at the gutter, indicating it was replaced. Many of the blank interleaved pages have notes on the facing psalm; some notes also on the printed psalm leaf. Richly annotated.