Sepher Dikduk (Mahalach Shvilei HaDa’ath). With introduction and commentary attributed to Benjamin ben Judah Bozecco.

KIMCHI, MOSES

Gershom Soncino

Ortona

1519

Early owner’s inscriptions.

Vinograd, Ortona 1 (NLI copy incomplete).

Exceptionally rare. The only Hebrew book printed in Ortona a small coastal town in the Italian region of Abruzzo. The author R. Moses Kimchi (d. c. 1190), was the older brother of R. David Kimchi and raised him from a young age after the passing of their father. R. Moses was an accomplished scholar in his own right, and in addition to this work, issued popular commentaries to the books of Proverbs, Ezra and Nechemiah, which, while found in many contemporary rabbinic Bibles, are mistakenly attributed to ibn Ezra. The first edition of the present work was issued in 1488 at the press of Gershom Soncino’s uncle, Joshua, making it the first Hebrew grammar book to be printed. In it, the author uses extraordinarily concise language to discuss the basic rules of Hebrew. The secondary title of the book, Mahalach Shvilei HaDa’ath, is an acrostic for the author’s name. Although attributed to R. Benjamin ben Judah, the commentary is really that of R. Elijah Levita Bachur. See M. J. Heller, The Sixteenth Century Hebrew Book, Vol. I, pp. 122-23.