(RaMCHa”L). Leshon Limudim (rules of poetry)

Luzzatto, Moses Chaim

Raphael Hayim D’Italia

Mantua

1727

First edition. Title within typographic border. Hebrew, with Latin and Italian printed side-bars

Vinograd, Mantua 340

Leshon Limudim was Luzzatto’s first appearance in print, the book composed when the author was twenty years old. The work is dedicated to Luzzatto’s mentor, Rabbi Isaiah Bassani. There is a poem in honor of the author by David Finzi, who would eventually become Luzzatto’s father-in-law. This is the first of three parts of the work. Parts Two and Three of Leshon Limudim were published from manuscript by Haberman (Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook, 1945). see EJ, Vol.11, col. 603; Meyer Waxman, History of Jewish Literature III, pp. 104-105. E. Carlebach, The Pursuit of Heresy (New York, 1990), p. 195. F. Lachower in his seminal Toldoth Hasaphruth Ha’ivrith Hachadashah (1928-32) states that all of Luzzato’s works were heavily infuenced by Kabbalah, including this work, despite their subsequent literary fame