Sepher Darchei Lashon Hakodesh - Liber Viarum Linguae Sanctae. Edited by Agostino Giustiniani.

KIMCHI, MOSES.

Gilles de Gourmont

Paris

(1520)

Latin introduction followed by Hebrew text in a most distinctive Hebrew font. Title within 4-part ornamental border (trimmed on outer margin). A crisp, clean copy.

the first hebrew book printed in paris. a very fine copy of a very scarce edition. includes an early hebrew alphabet. Born in Genoa into a noble family, Agostino Giustiniani (1470-1536) joined the Dominican order in 1487. He studied Greek, Hebrew and Arabic, and in 1514 began the preparation of a polyglot edition of the Bible. As bishop of Nebbio in Corsica, he took part in some of the earlier sittings of the Lateran council (1516–17), but, in consequence of party complications, withdrew to his diocese, and ultimately to France, where he became a pensioner of Francis I, and was the first to occupy a chair of Hebrew and Arabic in the University of Paris. He was killed in a storm at sea - but not before producing the famed Genoa Psalms polyglot.