Customs more inviolable than the preceding ones; they were prescribed with a regard to the Manner of contracting, espousing, dismissing an Adultress, or putting her to the Test, in order to convict or justify her, &c. This is what the Authors to be now mentioned by us have fully treated of.
Joan. Buxtorf, de nuptiis & divortiis Hebræorum. This is a Dissertation of Buxtorf the Son’s, printed at Basil, 1652, in 4to.
Joan. Selden. uxor Hebraicas; where he treats likewise of Marriages and Divorces. This was printed at London in 1646, in 4to.
Item, de jure Nat. & Gent. l. 5. Here too he treats of the same. The Edition of this Work has been mentioned above. See his Title in the Index.
See our Dissertation on the Marriages of the Hebrews, before our Comment on the Canticles. See likewise our Dissertation on Divorces, prefixed to the Book of Deuteronomy.
Thomæ Pii, de divortiis Hebræorum. Londini, 1603, in 4to.
Roberti Cenalis, de divortio matrimonii Mosaici per Evangelicam legem rejecto; at Paris, 1549, in 4to.
Talmud. Tract. Kiduschim, Cethuboth, & Gittim. To be found in Surenhusius’s Edition. See his Title in the Index.
Joan. Bened. Carpzovii, de chupha Hebræorum Disputatio Acad. p. 411, &c. This is among his other Disputations. See his Title, ibid.
Joan. Barthold. Niemer, Dissert. de sanguinitatis & affinitatis gradibus. Helmstadt, 1699, in 4to.
Jac. Perizonii, de ducendâ defuncti fratris uxore. Deut. xxv. 5, 6. See in the Dissertations upon Deuteronomy, and his Title in the Index.
Samuelis Frederici Bucher, de velatis & conclusis fæminis. Budissæ, 1717, in 12mo. two Vols. This he treats of in his Hebrew Antiquities. Here he will inform those who read neither the Scripture nor the Ancients, that the Hebrews, Greeks, Persians and Romans, kept their Wives shut up in the upper part of their Houses, in a separate Apartment, the Windows whereof were grated up; that they were kept there either by Eunuchs or Women; that Widows had no more Liberty after the Death of their Husbands than in their Life-time; that young Maidens were shut up with more care; that in the Temples and Synagogues, the Women were separated from Men. He omits nothing that he has read relating to the Vestals.
No one, doubtless, will dispute with him such certain Truths: He proves them by a Crowd of Passages out of Sacred and Profane, Rabbinical and Modern Authors.
He has introduced in his Digressions almost all the Ceremonies of Marriage among the Hebrews and Greeks. The Father of the young Woman presented her to her Spouse veiled, and he promised her in Marriage before certain Witnesses: The Contract was written down; they eat together several times; the Feasts were continued sometimes for seven Days before the Wedding, and seven Days after; they continued at least three Days. Upon the Wedding-day a Tent was set up, under which the Spouse went to expect her who was espoused to him; and there received the Nuptial Benediction; at which time he put a Ring upon her Finger. Sometimes instead of a Tent, a Canopy was used, supported by four young Slaves. Night being come, the Husband went to the Wife’s House, attended by a Train of his Friends, with a Choir of Musicians. Flambeaux of White-thorns were carried before him. The Wife’s Friends were with her. The married Couple were shut up in a Chamber prepared with care: One of the Husband’s Friends, and a Relation of the Wife’s, guarded the Chamber; the Greeks called them Paranymphs. Lastly, the Husband led his Wife home with all the Pomp possible. The Romans, and other Nations observed the same Ceremonies, and they are still in use among several People.
The Remainder of the Treatise is employed in shewing that the Women, married or unmarried, never went out without being veiled; and in describing the several sorts of Veils: One made in the Form of Net-work covered their Faces, another the Head and Shoulders, like the Veils of Nuns: The most common sort, like Mantles, came over the Head and whole Body, and this was called Peplum. This Dress was in use among the Women, but worn by voluptuous and effeminate Men, and by the gravest of them likewise in Mourning. The Custom of veiling the Women was common from the time of Abraham; many Nations followed it, and several at this Day retain it.
Alberti Fabricii, Bibliograph. Antiquaria, c. 20. He is very circumstantial in this important Matter: For he discourses 1. of Marriages; 2. of Dowries; 3. of Betrothing, of the Benediction, &c. and cites all the Authors who have treated these Particulars.
Upon Polygamy, see Selden's Uxor Hebraica.
Heidegger, Historia Patriarcharum. He treats here of Polygamy. See his Title. Melchior Zeidler, Tract. de Polygamiâ.
Montacutius, in Apparatu, p. 193. & seq. See his Title.
Julii Bartolocci, de essentiâ matrimonii apud Hebræos, t. 3. Bibl. Rab. p. 158. Vide Interpretes ad Matth. xix. 3.
Joan. Christoph. Wagenseil, de uxore adulterii suspectâ. This Treatise is printed at Nuremberg, 1674, in 4to. with Lipman’s Notes. See the Title Wagenseil in the Index.
Guillielmi Salden, de potu Zelotypiæ. This is a Treatise upon the Trial made use of by the Hebrews, to discover whether a Wife were faithful or not to her Husband. This is among Salden’s Works, printed at Amsterdam, 1684, under the Title of Otia Theologica. This Author was a Fleming, and a Calvinist. See the Title Salden.
Andreæ Acoluthi, de aquis amaris, at Lipsick, 1682, in 4to. See his Title in the Index.
You may consult likewise upon this Matter the first Tome of our Dictionary, where a great deal is said of it.