Galuth Yehudah [Italian dictionary of the difficult words in the Bible, Hagadah of Passover and Pirkei Avoth]

MODENA, JUDAH ARYEH (LEONE) DA

Giacomo Sarzina

Venice

1612

FIRST EDITION. With Hebrew and Italian poetry by the author’s son, Mordecai (Marc Antonio). Title in Hebrew and Italian. Text in Italian interspersed with Hebrew. Initials historiated. On title and rear blank, signatures of several generations of the Segre Family, distinguished rabbinical family of the Piedmont region of Northern Italy. On title in Hebrew: “Abraham ben Zerah Segre.” On rear blank: In Hebrew, “Chaim Segre”; in Italian, “Jacob Segre di Vercelli, 1765”; also in Italian, “Benjamin Segre.” (See details below)

Vinograd, Venice 1069

Unlike typical dictionaries which are in alphabetical order, Galuth Yehudah follows the order of the Bible. In their Haskamah to this work, the rabbis of Venice - Leib Saraval, Isaac Gershon, Solomon Shemaiah Sforno, Moses Cohen Port, et al - describe the hardships involved in producing this unique bilingual work. “After the demise of Juan di Gara there was no press available until today. Therefore the printer had to recreate original fonts and make preparations to match the Italian with the Hebrew…” Thus, by the way, we are provided with a terminus ad quem for the death of the Venetian printer Giovanni di Gara. It was Steinschneider who first noted this source. Steinschneider assumed that di Gara was dead by 1609. See Steinschneider, Catalogus Librorum Hebraeorum, nos. 7084 and 9409; A.M. Habermann, Giovanni di Gara Printer, Venice 1564-1610 (1982), Introduction, p. 15. Abraham Segre (d. 1641) was dayyan (justice) in Alessandria. Chaim Segre (17th century) was one of three delegates sent by the Italian Jewish community to Turkey to make contact with Shabbetai Zevi, presumed Messiah. Chaim’s grandson Benjamin (18th-19th centuries), was a prominent scholar of Vercelli. It is assumed that Jacob was the middle generation, son of Chaim and father of Benjamin. See EJ, Vol. XIV, col. 1112