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

AUCTION 17 | Tuesday, November 12th, 2002 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts and Works of Graphic and Ceremonial Art From Various Owners

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Lot 67

BALMES, ABRAHAM DE.

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

FIRST EDITION. Hebrew and Latin on facing pages ff. (316). Lightly stained in places, previous owner’s Latin inscription on title and verso of final leaf. Recent cloth-backed boards. 4to Vinograd, Venice 81; Habermann, Bomberg 76; Mehlman 1868; not in Adams

Venice: Daniel Bomberg 1523

Est: $800 - $1,200

PRICE REALIZED $1,300

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