Judaica.- Galiatovsky (Ioannikiy) [Messia pravdivy [The Truthful Messiah, Jesus Christ Son of God], first edition, [18], 429, [5]ff., additional preface dedicated to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, woodcut title with coat-of-arms on verso, 7 woodcut head-pieces and 3 tail-pieces, woodcut of conversation of Christ with a Samaritan on p.278, some repairs to leaves, mostly marginal, some soiling and staining, contemporary blind-stamped calf over wooden boards, rebacked, covers repaired and with new clasps, 4to, Kyiv, Press of the Pecherskaia Lavra, 1669.

⁂ First edition of an important book, dealing with some of the social and religious polemics of the day. In 1666 a member of the Jewish community in Turkey, Sabbatai Zevi, proclaimed himself the Messiah and claimed he would lead the Jewish people to salvation. Zevi went to Jerusalem and claimed to be its king - as a result he was arrested by the Sultan and put in jail. In jail he converted to Islam, but soon afterwards was executed. The Sabbatean heresy was for a time extremely popular amongst the Jewish community in Ukraine and was the inspiration for this anti-Jewish polemic, 'The truthful Messiah', which has been called the first anti-semitic book in the Russian-Ukrainian tradition, summing up all the then current negative stereotypes of the Jews.

The book is written in the form of dialogue between a Jew and a Christian, in the Ukrainian language - it was later translated into Polish in 1672 with the financial assistance of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich who reportedly admired it.

No copy traced at auction.