Tzemach David / Dittionario Novo Hebraico.

DE POMIS, DAVID.

Giovanni di Gara

Venice

1587

FIRST EDITION. Arms of Pope Sixtus V on f. 2r and of the De Pomis (“Min Hatapuchim”) Family on f. 5v. (Yaari, Hebrew Printers’ Marks, no. 41)

Vinograd, Venice 717; Habermann, di Gara 97a; Adams P-1823.

Celebrated Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin and Italian dictionary presenting definitions from Kimchi’s Shorashim, Levita’s Tishbi, and Nathan ben Yechiel’s Aruch, and adding numerous historical and scientific observations and discourses. Trained as a medical doctor, David de Pomis’s expositions of Biblical and Talmudic terms comprise a good deal of curious and interesting medieval scientific lore. The introductory pages embody the author’s genealogy and autobiography and recount the remarkable history of the ancient de Pomis family, brought in chains to Italy from the Land of Israel by Emperor Titus following his siege and destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 C.E. The work is dedicated to Pope Sextius V, in gratitude for the restoration of the concession permitting Jewish physicians to attend to Christian patients for the years 1585-1590. See C. Roth, The Jews in the Renaissance (1950), pp. 223-2.