JOSEPHUS IN 17TH-CENTURY DUTCH:

Jewish history returns to tiny historical village

By Rachel Levy Aug 2, 2007, 10:06 GMT (Monsters and Critics)

Amsterdam - The foundation that runs the tiny historical Dutch village of Bourtange announced it received an extraordinary 17th-century Dutch translation of Antiquities of the Jews by 1st century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (37-100 AD).

The work, which like the Bible begins with God's creation of the world, covers Jewish history up to the time the Romans conquered ancient Judea and expelled the inhabitants from their homeland, marking the beginning of the Jewish diaspora.

'We think there are only two other copies of this Dutch translation,' explains Margriet van Klinken of the Bourtange Foundation.

'The book is dated 1636 and written in old, pre-modern Dutch. We do not know yet who translated the text from the Greek original.'

'It is a beautiful book,' Van Klinken continues, 'it has a beautiful yellow leather cover. The pages are made of very thick, white paper and the text is written in Gothic print, with black ink.'

Interestingly, the book not only contains text but many engravings.

'Black-and-white pictures of various scenes described in the text surrounding the engravings. Some are quite big, comprising more than half the page,' Van Klinken says enthusiastically.

How the item came to Bourtange was just as interesting.

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