Judaica.- [Mears (Abraham)] The Book of Religion, Ceremonies, and Prayers of the Jews, as Practised in their Synagogues and Families on all Occasions..., 2 parts in 1 vol., woodcut head- and tail-pieces and decorative initials, part 2 C7 flaw with loss to catchword, some water-staining to foot, some spotting, light browning, handsomely bound in contemporary red morocco, sympathetically rebacked preserving original gilt backstrip with olive morocco label, covers with wide gilt borders, very small loss to spine foot, some wear to extremities, rubbed elsewhere, cloth slip-case, g.e., [Cecil Roth, Magna Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica, p. 302, no. 6; The Great Synagogue, (1950), pp. 73-74], 8vo, for J. Wilcox, 1738.

⁂ The first translation of any part of the Jewish prayer book into English. According to Cecil Roth, Mears was 'an apostate member of one of the oldest families of the Ashkenazi community in England', and his 'description of Jewish rites and ceremonies...is of considerable interest, giving as it does a graphic, detailed, and at times not unamusing picture of London Jewish life, in particular, it must be accentuated, the life of the community of the Great Synagogue, in which Mears had been brought up in the first half of the eighteenth century'.

Provenance: In. Selwyn (armorial bookplate).