Robertson, William. Sepher Tehillim U’Sepher Echah. The Hebrew Text of the Psalmes and Lamentations, but Published for to Encourage and Facilitate Beginners in their Way with the Reading.

(ANGLO-JUDAICA).

London

1656

The author, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, was the leading Hebrew tutor in Cromwellian London, when learning Hebrew was all the rage. In spite of the grammatical error in the title, the book matches the Hebrew text of Psalms and Lamentations with an accurate Romanization, according to standard Sephardic pronunciation. Of special interest here is the author’s six-page “epistle dedicatory” to his patron, John Sadler, constitutional lawyer, Member of Parliament, and Oliver Cromwell’s private secretary and confidante. Sadler, John Harvard’s brother-in-law, was one of the leading ideologues of the philo-Semitic Israelite-identifying party among the English Puritans. Robertson’s career faded away after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, but finally, in 1680 he was appointed as a Hebrew instructor at Cambridge.