Maphte’ach Leshon ha-Kodesh - That is the Key of the Holy Tongue

UDALL (Uvedale), JOHN

Franciscus Raphelengius

Leiden

1593

FIRST EDITION. English interspersed with vocalized Hebrew. Three parts in one (including a short dictionary). Printer’s device on title. On blank before Pt. III, inscription of former owner: "William Oatis. April 26th 1791. Pembrokeshire, South Wales." Scattered marginalia

Vinograd, Leiden 14; Fuks, Leiden 10

First Hebrew Grammar Printed in the English Language. Based on the Latin grammar prepared by Petrus Martinius, Udall’s valuable work was posthumously published by Raphelengius, son-in-law of the great Antwerp printer, Christopher Plantin. “Far into the eighteenth century the language in which...Hebrew manuals were produced was Latin. [Udall’s work is the] only extant example of a Hebrew grammar written in English from the whole of the Tudor period.” G. Lloyd Jones, The Discovery of Hebrew in Tudor England (1983), p. 257