Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/632

582 Basnage

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Encomendos

el Scfior

a su Pueblo con su Declaration, a la Verdadcra Tradicion,"

RazonyDiuim Conforme

Amsterdam, 5449 (1689). Jewish philosoplij' Basnage knew only at second hand, through Buddeus' "Specimen," Halle, 1702. He was acquainted also with the works of Maimonides and his followers; but of Moses Nahmanides, or of Hizzuk Emunah, he had at his command only the extracts given by AVagenscil in his "Tela Ignea." To judge from his knowledge of the mysticism of the Zohar, he must have read the analysis and the fragments found in Knorr von Rosenroth's " Cabbala Denudata, " in four large volumes, con-

His One

number

taining a

of dissertations, in-

Deficiency eluding the " Sha'ar ha-Shamayyim " in Reading-, of Abraham Cohen Herrera (whom Basnage calls Lira). The "Sefer Yezirah," which he used in the translated and annotated form by Rittangel, Amsterdam, 1642, like all his forerunners, he ascribed unhesitatingly to the patriarch Abraham and, probably, had lie known the "Sefer Raziel," he would have ascribed it to Adam.

This one deficienc}' in his wide reading and deep study need not prevent due acknowledgment of the depth of his researches. Basnage's other books also cover the field of his Jewish studies. Before publishing his large history, he issued a "Histoire du Vieux et du Nouveau Testament, Representee par des Figures Gravees en Taille-Douce par Romain de Hooge, avec des Explications dans Lesquelles on Eclaircit Plusieurs Passages Obseurs, " etc., Amsterdam, 1704. Under each one of these figures are verses by La Brune. The nine editions of this book prove its success. It was even pirated under the title " Grand Tableau de l'Univers." Basnage's part in the work, however, is confined to short explanatory notes on the pictures. In later editions he added annals of the

Church and of the world, from the Creation to the death of the apostles, and a " Geographie Sacree. Later he published the "Antiquites Judaiques, ou Remarques Critiques sur la Republique des Hebreux," Amsterdam, 1713. Although this is hardly more than a sequel to G. Goerree's translation and continuation of Cunseus' "De Republica Hebraorum " (three volumes), it yet reveals Basnage's personality and independence. He does not believe, for instance, that Moses was the first of the world's lawgivers, nor that men like Lycurgus, Solon, and Pythagoras borrowed from the Bible whatever was excellent in their laws.

Not confining himself to political history, he touches upon theology he discusses the ideas of the

Jews on demonology and divine

and examining the opinionsof the fathers of the Church on the pagan oracles, the Sibylline Books, and other fictitious works, he does not hesitate to accuse them inspiration



either of ignorance or of unfairness.

Voltaire, in " sieurs

La Bible Enfin Expliquee par PluAumoniers " ("Melanges," xlix., ed. Beuspeaking of a captive priest of returned and taught his countryto worship God, adds in a note:

chot, p. 366), in

Samaria,

men how

who had

" Basnage in his Jewish Antiquities ' says that some scholars take this to be the Hebrew priest, sent to the new inhabitants of Samaria, who wrote the Pentateuch. They base their opinion '

582

on the tact that the Pentateuch speaks ot the origin of Babylon and of other Mesopotamian cities which Moses could not have that neither the ancient nor the later Samaritans would receive the Pentateuch from the Hebrews ot the kingdom ot Judah, their bitterest enemies that the Samaritan Pentateuch was written in Hebrew, the language of this priest, who would not have had time to learn Chaldee and finally they point out the essential differences between the Samaritan and our Pentateuch. It is not known who these scholars are Basnage does not name them."

known









Le

Vier, the editor of one of Basnage's posthuthe following tribute to his charac-

mous works, pays

ter in the preface to the

second volume of the

"

An-

"In his works his nales des Provinces-TJnies " candor, frankness, and sincerity are no less evident than his great scholarship and sound reasoning." Bibliography: Mailhet, Jacques Basnage, Theolofiien, Contruversiste, Diplomate, et Historien, Geneva, 1880.

M.

T.

BASON.

S.

See Basin.

BASaUE PROVINCES A

district of Spain,

including Guipuzcoa, Biscay, and Alava, extending along both sides of the Pyrenees, where the Basques Under an old fuero, or ordior Vasconians lived. nance, Jews were never allowed in Guipuzcoa and Biscay. A Jew visiting Guipuzcoa for business purposes was not permitted to stop at one place longer than three days, and in the whole province not longer than fourteen days at the utmost. At Vitoria, the capital of the province of Alava, Jews lived from the twelfth century, but after 1203 in a special street, the "Calle Nueva," or

In the Thirteenth Century. mara vedis.

New

They grew to a concommunity, which was under Castilian rule, and which in 1290 paid a tax amounting altogether to 11,392 The Jews of Vitoria were chiefly money"

Street. "

siderable

In 1332 Alfonso XL of Castile issued a decree forbidding Jews to take promissory notes from the Christians of Vitoria. During his stay in the city it is said that Vincente Ferrer converted four of the leading families to Christianity. The enactments against the Jews of Vitoria during the ten years immediately preceding the expulsion were devised to bring about their complete separation from the Christian inhabitants. According to the decree of Aug. 21, 1482, no Jew or Jewess was permitted, under heavy penalty, to enter the Franciscan monastery until after mass. On May 28 and July 24 of the same year a decree had been issued to the effect that no Christian woman, or Christian girl under ten years of age, might enter the ghetto by day or night unless accomIn the panied by a man, on pain of being fined Fifteenth or imprisoned nor should a Christian Century, woman, either alone or accompanied by a man, light a fire either on the Sabbath, or on any other day in the house of a Jew, or cook for him. Against this decree, which hindered the Jews in their religious observances, David Chacon appealed at once in the name of the community. The assembly of representatives forbade the Jews (June 16, 1486) " to bake their bread in the ovens of the Christians, to keep their shops open on Christian holidays, and to work in public on Sundays and festivals." Christians were forbidden to sell vegetables or fruit or any food whatever in the ghetto, to take service with Jews, or to live brokers.



—

—