1732 - TABLE OF SHOW BREAD - English engraving

Title -- top engraving: "The Shew-Bread Table described by the Jews."
"1. The golden pan wherein the loaves were baked.
2. A Vessel which was filled with excellent wine."
(108 - H)
Artist: not given   Engraver: Philip a Gunst
Page: 15.5 inches x 19.5 inches
Condition: excellent impression; margins with a some spots and foxing and the chip
Scanner Issues: Images below are off the true color and tone, off the brightness both of which are hard to capture, and they blur the fineness of the details.

More information: This is a beautiful engraving from an important 18th Century religious book. It is a Christian view of Jewish ceremonial life. It is an 18th Century work of art as well as being of religious and historic interest. Engravings from this book are famous and beautiful and large and can be framed. This print is from the English edition (not French or Latin), and so the writing is in English. The book is the1732 English Folio edition of Dom Augustin Calmet's Dictionary of the Holy Bible. Calmet was a Benedictine monk and scholar and teacher of philosophy and theology who had access to many manuscripts and books in many libraries and was able to compile one of the great dictionaries of the 18th century. His work is historically significant but dated. He was a pioneer in biblical study. This was written while he was Abbey of Moyenmoutier. The title is "An Historical, Critical, Geographical, Chronological, and Etymological Dictionary of the Holy Bible in three volumes...and illustrated ... copper-plates. Representing the Antiquities, Habits, Buildings, Sepulchres, and other Curiosities of the Jews.... And ...[a] table of all the Hebrew Coins... Written originally in French, by the Reverend Father Dom Augustin Calmet, a Benedictine Monk, Abbot of Senones. And now translated into English from the author's last edition..." There were many later editions as well as book influenced by Calmet.