Il Pentateuco. With the commentary by Samuel David Luzzatto (Shada”l)

(BIBLE Hebrew & Italian. Pentateuch).

F. Sacchetto

Padua

1871-76

FIRST EDITION. Five volumes. Hebrew and Italian on facing pages. Stamps of Pinchas Halevi Horowitz of Bistritz.

Known by his Hebrew acronym “Shadal,” Samuel David Luzzatto (1800-65) was an Italian Jewish scholar, poet, and a member of the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement. Luzzatto manifested extraordinary scholarly ability from his early youth, but always maintained a firm belief in revelation. Thus he treated the text of the Torah with sacred regard although occasionally allowed himself to depart from the traditional phrasing of the words as reflected in the Masorah and the Talmud. A complete set of the first edition of the Shadal’s Chumash is surprisingly scarce.