Judaeo-Christian Intellectual Culture in the Seventeenth Century Archives Internationales D'histoire Des Idees
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JUDAEO-CHRISTIAN INTELLECTUAL CULTURE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ARCHIVES INTERNATIONALES D'HISTOIRE DES IDEES INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS 163 JUDAEO-CHRISTIAN INTELLECTUAL CULTURE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY A Celebration of the Library of Narcissus Marsh (1638-1713) edited by ALLISON P. COUDERT SARAH HUTTON RICHARD H. POPKIN and GORDON M. WEINER Founding Directors: P. Dibont (Paris) and R.H. Popkin (Washington University, St. Louis & UCLA) Director: Sarah Hutton (The University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom) Assistant-Directors: J.E. Force (Lexington); J.e. Laursen (Riverside) Editorial Board: J.F. Battail (Paris); F. Duchesneau (Montreal); A. Gabbey (New York); T. Gregory (Rome); J.D. North (Groningen); MJ. Petry (Rotterdam); J. Popkin (Lexington); G.A.J. Rogers (Keele); Th. Verbeek (Utrecht) Advisory Editorial Board: J. Aubin (Paris); B. Copenhaver (Los Angeles); A. Crombie (Oxford); H. Gadamer (Heidelberg); H. Gouhier (Paris); K. Hanada (Hokkaido University); W. Kirsop (Melbourne); P.O. Kristeller (Columbia University); E. Labrousse (Paris); A. Lossky (Los Angeles); J. Malarczyk (Lublin); 1. Orcibal (Paris); W. Rod (MUnchen); G. Rousseau (Los Angeles); H. Rowen (Rutgers University, N.J.); J.P. Schobinger (ZUrich); J. Tans (Groningen) JUDAEO-CHRISTIAN INTELLECTUAL CULTURE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ACelebration of the Library of Narcissus Marsh (1638-1713) edited by ALLISON P. COUDERT Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, U.S.A. SARAH HUTTON University of Hertfordshire, West Hall Campus, U.K. RICHARD H. POP KIN University of California, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. and GORDON M. WEINER Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, U.S.A. .... SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS" MEDIA, B.V. A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-94-010-5956-5 ISBN 978-94-011-4633-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-011-4633-3 Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved © 1999 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1999 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1999 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, incIuding photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner CONTENTS Introduction M McCarthy .................. ...................................... vii 1. Two Treasures of Marsh's Library R. H Popkin .............................. 1 2. Queen Christina's Latin Sefer-ha-Raziel Manuscript S. Akerman ........ 13 3. ~:btral~ti~eN~~;~ns:all~~~~~~ .~~~~~.. ~~~ .~ .~~~~. :.~~ .t~~ ........... 27 4. Seventeenth-Century Christian Hebraists: Philosemities or Antisemites? A. P. Coudert ................................................... .43 5. The Prehistoric English Bible D. S. Katz .....................................71 6. Apocrypha Canon and Criticism from Samuel Fisher to John Toland, 1650-1718 J. A. 1. Champion ....................................... 91 7. 'Liberating the Bible from Patriarchy:' Poullain de la Barre's Feminist Hermeneutics R. Whelan .......................................... 119 8. Faith and Reason in the Thought of Moise Amyraut D. M Clarke .. .145 9. Descartes and Immortality D. Berman .. ................................... 161 10. Spinoza and Cartesian ism T. Verbeek ................................... .173 11. La Religion Naturelle et Revelee Philosophie et Theologie: Louis Meyer, Spinoza, Regner de Mansvelt J. Lagree ................ 185 12. Stillingfleet, Locke and the Trinity G.A.J. Rogers ...................... .207 13. 'The Fighting of two Cocks on a dung-hill:' Stillingfleet versus Sergeant B. C. Southgate ................................................... .225 14. Limborch's Historia Inquisitionis and the Pursuit of Toleration L. Simonutti ......................................................237 Index ................................................................................257 INTRODUCTION MURIEL MCCARTHY This volume originated from a seminar organised by Richard H. Popkin in Marsh's Library on July 7-8, 1994. It was one of the most stimulating events held in the Library in recent years. Although we have hosted many special seminars on such subjects as rare books, the Huguenots, and Irish church history, this was the first time that a seminar was held which was specifically related to the books in our own collection. It seems surprising that this type of seminar has never been held before although the reason is obvious. Since there is no printed catalogue of the Library scholars are not aware of its contents. In fact the collection of books by late seventeenth and early eighteenth century European authors on, for example, such subjects as biblical criticism, political and religious controversy, is one of the richest parts of the Library's collections. Some years ago we were informed that of the 25,000 books in Marsh's at least 5,000 English books or books printed in England were printed between 1640 and 1700. While there is no printed catalogue of all the books in Marsh's there are some sectional catalogues which with one exception are now out of print and are only available in special libraries. The first printed catalogue was compiled by J. R. Scott and edited by N. J. D. White: Catalogue of the Manuscripts, published in 1913. 1 N. J. D. White also compiled A Short Catalogue ofEnglish Books . .. Printed before MDCXLI, 1905 2 (this contains a listing of our incunabula) and A Catalogue of Books in the French Language (1918).3 A Catalogue of the Music Books, compiled by Richard Charteris, was published by the Boethius Press in Kilkenny in 1982. Archbishop Marsh's Library Marsh's Library, the first public library in Ireland, was founded by Archbishop Narcissus Marsh in 1701.~ Marsh was born in Hannington in Wiltshire in 1638 and educated in Oxford. He was ordained a clergyman in the Church of England and became a distinguished scholar and administrator. Marsh was later appointed Principal of St. Alban Hall in Oxford and was subsequently offered the Provostship of Trinity College in A.P. Coudert, S. Hutton, R.H. Popkin and G.M Weiner (eds): Judaeo-Christian Intellectual Culture in the Seventeenth Century, viii-xviii. © 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Vll viii Introduction Dublin. He accepted this position and shortly after his arrival in Trinity College in 1679 he discovered that there was nowhere to go to read or study in Dublin. The College Library was only available to the staff and students. Marsh decided to build a public library but he did not get the opportunity to do so until he became Archbishop of Dublin nearly twenty years later. The Library, which was designed by Sir William Robinson, is now one of the few eighteenth-century buildings left in Dublin which is still being used for its original purpose. Archbishop Marsh intended that the Library should be used by 'divines and anybody who wanted to spend an hour or two upon any occasion of study'. The original rules for readers also stated that 'all graduates and gentlemen shall have free access to the said Library on the days and hours before determined provided they behave themselves ... give place and pay due respect to their betters'. The interior of the Library with its beautiful dark oak bookcases each with carved and lettered gables, topped by a mitre, and the three elegant wired alcoves or 'cages' where the readers were locked with rare books, remains unchanged since it was built nearly three hundred years ago. It is a magnificent example of a seventeenth century scholars' library. There are four main collections, consisting of 25,000 books relating to the sixteenth, seventeenth and the early part of the eighteenth centuries. As one might expect, there is a large collection of liturgical works, missals, breviaries, books of hours of the Sarum use, bibles printed in almost every language, including the four great Polyglot bibles, and a great deal of theology and religious controversy. But these collectors were men of scholarly tastes, and the scope of the subjects is surprisingly wide and varied. There are books on medicine, law, science, travel, navigation, mathematics, music, surveying and classical literature in all the collections. While most of the books in Marsh's are in the possession of other great libraries some of the editions are either unique to the Library or are held by only a few national libraries. Apart from the books there are several distinctive features which set Marsh's apart from similar institutions. One unusual feature is that the interior design of the Library has changed so little that the books remain in the same places with the same shelfmarks where Archbishop Marsh and his first librarian placed them nearly three hundred years ago. This also means that the first manuscript catalogue compiled by the first librarian can still be used. Of the four main collections the most important is the library of Edward Stillingfleet (1635-1699) who was Bishop ofWorcester.5 In 1705 Muriel McCarthy ix Narcissus Marsh paid £2,500 for this library of nearly 10,000 books. Bishop Edward Stillingfleet was one of the most influential divines in the Church of England in the seventeenth century. He acted as spokesman for the Anglican Church during a period of great religious conflict. It was also a period when the Bible and biblical interpretations and translations were being questioned. Stillingfleet was renowned for his controversies