Mystery couple bless village with rare text

AMSTERDAM: The foundation that runs the tiny historical Dutch village of Bourtange announced it received an extraordinary 17th-century Dutch translation of Antiquities of the Jews by 1st century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (AD37-100).

The work, which like the Bible begins with God's creation of the world, covers Jewish history up to the time the Romans conquered ancient Judea and expelled the inhabitants from their homeland, marking the beginning of the Jewish diaspora.

"We think there are only two other copies of this Dutch translation," explains Margriet van Klinken of the Bourtange Foundation.

"The book is dated 1636 and written in old, pre-modern Dutch. We do not know yet who translated the text from the Greek original."

Interestingly, the book not only contains text but many engravings.

How the item came to Bourtange was just as interesting.

Bourtange, a star-shaped former fort with some 300 inhabitants located in the northeast of the Netherlands, has since the 1970s been an open-air museum.

The town was originally built as a fort in the late 16th century by Prince William I (the Silent) during the Eighty Years' War for Dutch independence from Spain.

It was to this attraction that an elderly couple from Oldenburg, German came on a Thursday in late July, carrying the old book in a white plastic bag. "It took us by surprise," Van Klinken says. "They asked for the museum staff and handed over the bag.

"The couple, who want to remain anonymous, are private people who bought the book from an antique shop many years ago. They told us they had been looking for a place to look after this unique historical work. Their children were not interested in having it."

But in a previous visit to Bourtange, they saw that museum town's small synagogue already had an 18th-century copy of Josephus' work on display.

"They immediately decided their own copy belonged here too.

"We still need to assess the exact value of this book," Van Klinken says. "Several experts will look at it. We want to know more about it. We also need to know how to preserve the book, and whether we can put it on display."

DPA

(China Daily 08/03/2007 page18)