Translated from the Latin first edition: De lubrico iurisjurandi Judaeorum, 1744. Good condition; half-leather binding with marbled boards.

Comprehensive overview and discussion of predominantly Christian literature concerning the Jewish Oath, with strong anti-semitic undertones. The main text was originally written in Latin and submitted by Johann Georg Estor (1699-1773) as a legal dissertation at the university in Marburg in 1744. Estor became a renowned lawyer and was later appointed as the vice chancellor of the university in Marburg. The 1753 edition at hand is not only a German translation of the 48 pages of the original Latin text, but contains on 122 pages a wealth of annotations and explanations which are grouped in "commentary form" around the main text. An extensive appendix quotes verbatim from chapters about the Jewish oath in Christian sources such as "Eisenmenger's "Entdecktes Judentum," Schudt: "Juedische Merckwuerdigkeiten," Wagenseil, Bodenschatz as well as from various specific decrees. It is unclear who wrote the extensive German commentary. A detailed bibliography lists about 200 works in which the topic "Jewish oath" is mentioned and which are quoted and used in the book.

In the main text Estor elaborates on the Jewish oath within the Jewish tradition as well as the so-called "More Judaico," the Jewish oath in the Christian environment. "More Judaico" was a special form of oath, accompanied by certain ceremonies, which Jews were required to take in European courts of law until the 20th century, and which was often intentionally humiliating or dangerous. More Judaico is Latin for "on/by the Jewish custom." The question of the trustworthiness of the Jewish oath was intimately connected with the meaning that Christian authorities assigned to the Kol Nidre prayer recited by Jews on Yom Kippur. Most medieval law books and statutes contain elaborate provisions and formulae for the More Judaico. Many provided for concomitant degradations and insults, such as having Jews take their oaths while standing on a pigskin. In the last chapters of his text Estor warns of Jewish oath formulas which are not valid in his opinion and advises which form of the Jewish oath is acceptable and trustworthy for the Christian environment.

The text at hand is not only a fascinating comprehensive overview about the opinions, literature, Christian observations on both forms of the Jewish oath in the mid-eighteenth century. The text provides indirectly condensed insights into the legal and social status of Jews, prejudices and antisemitism of the mainstream Christian establishment, and gives details about Jewish customs at that time.