Biblia en Lengua Espanola. Trazudida palabra por palabra dela verdad Hebrayca

(BIBLE. Spanish)

H. Laurentius

(Amsterdam

1630)

Text printed in double-columns. Woodcut on title of the Ark of the Covenant with the Tetragrammaton above

Darlow & Moule 8479; not in Kayserling

Corrected by Menasseh ben Israel, this is the second reprint of the famous Ferrara Bible of 1554, the editio-princeps of the Old Testament in Spanish, intended for use by the Spanish speaking Jews in Amsterdam. Although they had been expelled from Spain in 1492, the Sephardic Jews kept Spanish as their domestic language for centuries thereafter in the Netherlands. The first Spanish language Old Testament was printed in Ferrara in 1553 by the printer Abraham Usque (Darlow & Moule 8467). A later edition from 1611 had an improved text and an extra preface both ascribed to Menasseh ben Israel. The current version is very similar in appearance to the 1611 version except the dedication and preface are omitted. (cf. Berkowitz, In Rememberance of Creation, no.194)