(RaDa”K). Sepher HaShorashim [Biblical lexicon and grammar]

AUCTION 65 | Thursday, June 25th, 2015 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts, Ceremonial Objects and Graphic Art

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Lot 89

KIMCHI, DAVID.

(RaDa”K). Sepher HaShorashim [Biblical lexicon and grammar]

Printed in two columns. Previous owners’ inscriptions including a memorial for the deceased, 1628-40. ff. (1), 5-570 cols., pp. 3. Some staining, censored in places, lower marginal repairs on many leaves, final leaf from another copy. Modern boards. Folio. Vinograd, Venice 140; Habermann, Bomberg 147.

Venice: Daniel Bomberg 1529

Est: $2,000 - $3,000

PRICE REALIZED $2,000

Influential Hebrew lexicographical work. The Provencal exegete and grammarian R. David Kimchi (1160? -1235?), was a life-long anti-Christian polemicist. For example in the present work, under the entry “elem” (column 376), the author, quoting his father R. Joseph Kimchi, derides the Christian assertion that the word “almah” (a young girl) found in Isaiah Chap 7:14 refers to a virgin birth. Unsurprisingly, the offending lines are struck out in this copy by the ever-watchful Church censor.