Cornelius Tiebout Engravings

Part 5. American Edition of the Works of Josephus

Part 5 provides another example of increasing American independence following the War for Independence. In this example, a New York publisher, William Durell, produced an American version of a book that had been published in London: The Whole Genuine and Complete Works of Flavius Josephus, the Learned and Authentic Jewish Historian and Celebrated Warrior, translated into English by George Henry Maynard. The London edition appeared about 1789, and the American, in 1792, 1794, 1795, and 1799. Many other American editions of works of Josephus have been published during the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.

Of the 60 illustrations in each edition, 14 in the American edition were engraved by Cornelius Tiebout. In the carousel below, each of Tiebout's illustrations is preceded by the matching illustration from the London book. If you in-zoom the London images, you may be able to read some of the artists' and engravers' names. In the American images, the artists' names are omitted, but you can easily read Tiebout's signature. Five of Tiebout's engravings were revised for use in Jacob R. Berriman's 1796 American Bible; these five are listed in Part 4.

See the Wikipedia articles Josephus and Antiquities of the Jews.

See also Kristofer Stinson, "A New Jerusalem: Flavius Josephus in Early America", Church History (Cambridge University Press), vol. 91, September 2022, pp. 555-574. According to the Abstract for this article, "...Josephus's histories enabled Americans to hold together the tensions in their national identity and ancient imagination that envisioned the United States as both a new Rome and a New Jerusalem. As a foundation, Josephus breathed life and legitimacy into the developing American culture. By neglecting to account for Josephus in this era, scholars have overlooked one of the most pervasive stories that formed the character and understanding of American Protestantism." You can view the entire American book—724 pages—here: Complete Works of Josephus

As already noted, the carousel below shows not only Tiebout's engravings, but also their precedents. Note the left-to-right reversals of some of the images. The absence of artists' names in the American edition perhaps indicates the publisher's intent that his edition would be "more American" if the [English] artists' names were omitted. In any case, the original paintings, mostly lost or privately owned, are certainly notable. Possibly the list of artists, for all 60 illustrations, has not been previously published. Such a list, including names of the English engravers, is provided in the following table, courtesy of Jenny Ruthven, Special Collections Librarian, University of Southampton.

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	Illustration	Artist	Engraver
1	Frontispiece: Josephus receiving the Antiquities and Wars	Metz	Grignion
2	Ten thousand Jews massacred	Metz	Grignion
3	The Egyptian midwives drowning the male children	Metz	Tookey
4	King Solomon building the Temple	Metz	Grignion
5	The daughter of Eleazar shewing her dead child to the soldiers	Corbould	Grignion
6	Manasseh, King of Judah, released	Metz	Tookey
7	Hagar in the wilderness	Metz	Heath
8	Tyro vindicating the innocence of Herod's sons	T. West	Tookey
9	Ceconcia, wife of Caius Caesar, the Roman emperor, lamenting	T. West	Grignion
10	King Herod rejecting the treacherous embraces of his son	T. West	Tookey
11	Josephus in a cave, after the destruction of Jotapata	Ramberg	Grainger
12	Delilah, after cutting off Samson's hair	Metz	Collier
13	The idolatry and apostacy of Jeroboam	C. Cooke	Grignion
14	Dagon, the idol falling before the ark of God	Stothard	Grignion
15	Daniel in the lion's den	Metz	Heath
16	Eleazar, by command of Antiochus, dragging to the torture	Weston	Grignion
17	Samson slaying the Philistines	C. M. Metz	Heath
18	The triumph of David, after the death of Goliath	Trepisiani	Tookey
19	Gideon's sacrifice consumed by fire	Metz	Heath
20	King Solomon's first sacrifice	Luykin	Grignion
21	Adad, King of Syria, stifled to death	Metz	Sharpe
22	The prophet Elias carried up to heaven	Stothard	Sparrow
23	The fugitive Shechemites burnt and suffocated	Metz	Blake
24	The feast of the Tabernacles	Luyking	Grignion
25	Josephus brought before the Emperor Vespasian	Ramberg	Tookey
26	The battle of Ain and the destruction of the city	Stothard	Blake
27	The Philistines depositing the armour of Saul	Metz	Grignion
28	Adam and Eve in paradise	Moreau	Scot
29	Judas Maccabaeus defeats the Samarian army	Metz	Grignion
30	The Philistines cutting off the heads of Saul and his three sons	Metz	Scot
31	Herod in search of treasure breaking the royal sepulchre	T. West	Grainger
32	The parting of Lot and Abraham	Metz	Blake
33	Antigonus, king of the Jews beheaded in Antioch	C. Cooke	Grignion
34	Destruction of the Temple of Baal	Metz	Parker
35	King David presenting Uriah with a letter to Joab	C. Graves	Noble
36	Achar confessing his sacrilegious theft
37	The Prophet Natan rebuking King David	T. West	Grignion
38	The combined forces of the Amalekites defeated
39	Seventy of Ahab's sons slain by order of Jehu
40	Death of Aristobulus, King of the Jews	T. West	Grignion
41	Manasseh, King of Judah, loaded with chains	T. West	Sharp
42	Queen Esther fainting before King
43	The apparition of Samuel raised by the witch of Endor	Salvator Rosa	Noble
44	Map of the countries surrounding the garden of Eden		T. Bowen
45	Hilkiah and Shaphan presenting to King Josiah the book of law	Stothard	Grignion
46	King Artaxerxes presenting to Mordechai the ring	Sharpe	Warner
47	The assassination of Amnon by order of Absolem	Sharpe	Warner
48	The building of the tower of Babel	Sharpe
49	Jerusalem taken and burned by Nebuchadnezzar	Luykin	Jas. Neagle
50	Herod reproached by Marianne for his cruelty	T. West	Page
51	Map of the Holy Land	(Thos. Bowen)
52	Ahab, King of Israel, slain in chariot by an arrow
53	The men of Masada murdering their wives and children	Ramberg	Niegel
54	The six days work of the creation
55	Pharoah and his host of Egyptians drowned	Stothard	Morris
56	The falling of the walls of Jericho, burning the city	C. Metz	Smiths
57	Solomon's temple
58	Solomon's wise judgement	T. West	Warren
59	Zachariah stoned to death	Metz	Collyer
60	Triumph of Titus after the reduction of Jerusalem	T. West	Neagle

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