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

KIMCHI, DAVID.

Daniel Bomberg

Venice

1529

Printed in two columns. An attractive, uncensored copy. Latin notations in an early hand.

Vinograd, Venice 140; Habermann, Bomberg 147.

A scarce uncensored copy of this influential Hebrew lexicographical work. The Provencal exegete and grammarian R. David Kimchi (1160? -1235?), was a life-long anti-Christian polemicist. Remarkably, this copy of Kimchi’s work explicitly retains the word “Notzrim” and other such Christian-related references. Under the entry “elem” (column 376), 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 all other copies, the offending lines were vehemently struck out by the ever-watchful Church censor.