Large 8vo. pp. xxvi, 256. Cloth. First of two copies in this collection, this one, from the library of J. J. Kalma, with a stamp from the \u201cProvinciale Bibliotheek,\u201d is bound with J. G. Ottema, Geschiedkundige aanteekeningen en ophelderingen bij het thet Oera Linda Bok (Leeuwarden, 1873). Dutch and Frisian on opposite pages.
First edition of a hoax by Cornelis over de Linden, still defended in some quarters. Thet Oera Linda bok is a \u2018family chronicle\u2019 forged circa 1850 by Cornelis over de Linden, a Dutch civil servant, Fran\u00e7ois HaverSchmidt, and Eelco Verwijs to establish over de Lindens allegedly noble descent but also to trick Frisian nationalists and Bible fanatics. Despite the obvious presence of much nonsense in the text, the editor of the manuscript, the scholar Jan Gerardus Ottema, believed it to be genuine. It traced the history of Frisia from 2193 BC forward, advancing the claims of a \u2018Nordic\u2019 race earlier than any migratory invaders. Although briefly fashionable in its time, with editions in Dutch (the present and also 1876 (see Bib# 4103045/Fr# 1396) and English (1876), it was already being dismissed by Jan Beckering Vinckers in De onechtheid van het Oera Linda-B\u00f4k (Haarlem, 1876, see Bib# 4103050/Fr# 1401), and later scholarship sought mainly to determine the inventor. But in 1933 Herman Wirth revived its thesis of Nordic racial primacy, which naturally enough attracted Nazi ideologues. See M. Breslauer, \"The tenth muse\", being a catalogue of a collection illustrative of forgery and alleged forgery in history, science and literature, in manuscript and print, including major and minor rarities of English and Continental literature. [London, 1946], no. 157ff; G. Jensma, \u201cHow to Deal with Holy Books in an Age of Emerging Science. The Oera Linda Book as a New Age Bible.\u201d In: Fabula, 48 (2007), 1-2, pp. 229-249.
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