(RaDa”K). Sepher Hashorashim [“Book of Roots;” Biblical lexicon and grammar]

KIMCHI, DAVID.

Daniel Bomberg

Venice

1529

Printed in two columns. A bright, uncensored copy

Vinograd, Venice 140; Habermann, Bomberg 147; Adams K-44 (not seen)

A scarce edition of this influential Hebrew lexicographical work. An uncensored copy. The Provencal exegete and grammarian R. David Kimchi (1160?-1235?), was a life-long anti-Christian polemicist. Unusually, this edition of Kimchi’s work explicitly retains the word “Notzrim” and other such references. Under the entry “elem” (column 361), the author, quoting his father R. Joseph Kimchi, derides the Christian assertion that the word “almah” (a young girl) found in Isaiah Chap 7:14 refers to a virgin birth. Remarkably, the passage has survived intact. In most other copies, the offending lines were vehemently struck out by the ever-watchful Church censor