(Rada”k). Sepher ha-Shorashim [“Book of Roots”: Biblical Lexicon]

KIMCHI, DAVID BEN JOSEPH

Obadiah, Menasseh and Benjamin of Rome

(Rome

1469-72)

FIRST EDITION. On the front blank there is a manuscript of what appears to be an alchemical formula complete with circular diagram. Besides the tell-tale mention of “zahav” (gold), the text at bottom contains the verse “Ha-tzur tamim pa'olo ki chol derachav mishpat (Deuteronomy 32:4). According to Raphael Patai, one finds in a typical Hebrew alchemical manuscript a procedure aimed at the transmutation of substances, lumped together with “charms, magic, incantations, conjurations, and divinations.” See R. Patai, The Jewish Alchemists (Princeton, 1994), p. 521

Vinograd, Rome 9; Goff 38; Goldstein 5; Offenberg 104; Steinschneider, p. 863, no. 4821; Thesaurus A24; Wineman Cat. 1

It is the opinion of A.K. Offenberg that the Sepher ha-Shorashim was the very first Hebrew book printed. By comparison to this Wineman copy, the copy of Sepher ha-Shorashim in JNUL has only 34 leaves; the JTSA copy has a fragment of just 2 leaves; and no part of it is in the possession of HUC. See Peretz Tishby, The Hebrew Incunabula in Israel in: Kiryath Sepher 59:4 (1984), p. 948, no. 8. This funademtal lexicographical work was an essential part of any scholar’s library in the 15th-16th centuries. It was printed three times before 1550, all three editions are contained here in the Wineman Collection (see also Lots 39 and 43)