Johann Andreä Eisenmengers ... Entdecktes Judenthum

Johann Andreas Eisenmenger's Entdecktes Judenthum, first published in 1711, represents a significant and controversial work of early 18th-century polemical literature. Eisenmenger, an orientalist and professor at the University of Heidelberg, spent decades researching rabbinic literature with the explicit goal of documenting what he perceived as inaccuracies and anti-Christian sentiments within Jewish religious texts. His work served as a massive compilation of excerpts translated from the Talmud and other scholarly writings, presented through a critical, often hostile lens that sought to provide scholarly justification for prevailing prejudices of the time.

The publication history of the work was fraught with legal and political tension. Before its official release, Jewish leaders successfully lobbied the Holy Roman Emperor to suppress the manuscript, arguing that its distribution would incite violence and persecution against Jewish communities. Consequently, the initial print run was seized and held for years. When it was finally released in 1711, it became a foundational text for later antisemitic scholarship, providing a dense, pseudoscientific framework that influenced European perceptions of Jewish theology for over two centuries.