Maphte’ach Lashon Hakodesh - That is the Key of the Holy Tongue

AUCTION 5 | Tuesday, June 23rd, 1998 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Books, Manuscripts and Works of Art

Back to Catalogue

Lot 277
UDALL (Uvedale), JOHN

Maphte’ach Lashon Hakodesh - That is the Key of the Holy Tongue

FIRST EDITION. Three parts in one (including a short dictionary). Printer’s device on title Title remargined, worm-tracks along lower blank margins, browned. Modern calf. Sm. 8vo Vinograd, Leiden 14; Fuks, Leiden 10

Leiden: Franciscus Raphelengius 1593

Est: $2,000 - $2,500
The first Hebrew Grammar printed in the English language. Based on the Latin grammar prepared by Petrus Martinius. Udall’s valuable work was posthumously published by Raphelengius, son-in-law of the great Antwerp printer, Christopher Plantin. “Far into the eighteenth century the language in which...Hebrew manuals were produced was Latin. [Udall’s work is the] only extant example of a Hebrew grammar written in English from the whole of the Tudor period.” G. Lloyd Jones, The Discovery of Hebrew in Tudor England (1983) p.257