Mikneh Avram - Peculium Abrae. Hebrew and Latin on facing pages

AUCTION 11 | Tuesday, November 28th, 2000 at 1:00

Important Hebrew Printed Books and Manuscripts From the Library of the London Beth Din

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Lot 13

BALMES, ABRAHAM DE

Mikneh Avram - Peculium Abrae. Hebrew and Latin on facing pages

FIRST EDITION. Hebrew and Latin on facing pages ff. (315 of 316). Possibly lacking final blank. Lightly browned and stained in places, signature on title removed. Modern morocco-backed boards. 4to Vinograd, Venice 81; Habermann, Bomberg 76; Mehlman 1868; not in Adams

Venice: Daniel Bomberg 1523

Est: $1,000 - $1,500

PRICE REALIZED $2,500

Distinguished in many fields, de Balmes served as physician to Cardinal Grimani of Venice, translator of scientific and philosophical works from Hebrew into Latin and as lecturer at the University of Padua where he attained renown as an Aristotelian. Greatly valued by contemporary Christian Hebraists, de Balmes prepared this grammar at the urging of the printer Bomberg, with whom a deep friendship was shared. The work appeared in two issues, with and without a Latin translation. Heinrich Graetz in his Geschichte (vol. IX, 215) has attempted to suggest that the translation was prepared by Bomberg himself. See D. Amram, the Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy (1909) pp. 169-72