Giuseppe Vigevano. Nisayon Ktav Lashon HaKodesh - Saggio di Caratteri Ebraici. [“Student’s Guide to Hebrew Calligraphy.”]

(CALLIGRAPHY).

(Anania Coen)

Mantua

1824

Two parts: Theory, followed by twelve full-page elaborate copper engravings (by F. Pirani) displaying examples of Hebrew fonts. Rabbinic approbations. Text in Italian and Hebrew.

The first study on Hebrew calligraphy. The plates here begin with the radicals and progress through rabbinic, scriptural and cursive texts; with alphabet and sample for each on separate plates, finishing with plates devoted to punctuation, numbers, the names of the months, and a final tour-de-force. The plates throughout are executed with great variation of tone provided by shading. Each is surrounded by flourishes and many includes symbolic animals. This work emerged at the dawn of the modernization of Hebrew into a living language. With the rise of secular nationalism, increased attention was given towards the viability of the Hebrew language to serve all strata of the Jewish people, as opposed to the more familiar lingua franca of Yiddish. For the past few centuries, Hebrew had been used in a rabbinic form, and was not readily accessible to those with lesser education. The efforts to formally educate children in its structure and grammar marks a turning point in the revivification of the language. (See EJ vol. V, 64).