Van Dale, Anton: - Dissertationes de Origine ac Progressu Idololatriae et Superstitionum: De Vera ac Falsa Prophetia; Uti et de Divinationibus Idololatricis Judaeorum.

Amstelodami [Amsterdam]: Apud Henricum & viduam Theodori Boom, 1696. First edition. 4to, pp. [lii], 762, [xiv]. Title-page in read and black. Title very thin in two patches (possibly paper flaws) causing some small holes but not affecting text, paper flaw causing a hole in the final leaf but again not affecting text, a little light toning and a few spots. Contemporary vellum with MS title to spine. Evidence of a bookplate having been removed from the front paste-down, lacks ffep, smudges and a few stains to vellum but very good overall. Anton van Dale (1638-1708) made his living first as a merchant, then as a physician. While working he simultaneously studied classical languages, eventually becoming a Latin scholar of some standing. He was for a while a Mennonite preacher, but was said to have resigned his role because his sermons, heavily laced with Greek and Latin, failed to appeal to his audience. He wrote extensively against superstition and witch-hunting. His most influential book, De Oraculis Veterum Ethnicorum Dissertationes (1683) was a work on oracles, in which he argued against belief in the supernatural and the role of the Devil in the pagan oracular tradition. Here in Dissertationes de origine ac Progressu Idololatriae et Supertitionum, Van Dale considers the ideas of true and false prophecy in the Bible and argues against the existence of the miraculous. As such, the book was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1737.

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