35 78 KIMCHI, DAVID (RaDa”K). Sepher HaShorashim. Third edition. Printed in two columns. Square Hebrew type, excepting names of biblical books and pericopes in rabbinic type. The Moses Gaster copy, his signature on verso of final manuscript leaf. COPIOUS MARGINAL NOTES LIKELY BY ELIJAH LEVITA. ff. 152 (of 168). Folios 1, 4–10, 15, 159–162, 166–168 reproduced in facsimile, ff. 2-3 inlaid affecting only a few letters of text, f.11, 163-165, and final added ms leaf mounted. Soiled and stained in places, marginal tears repaired, some leaves strengthened at gutter. Edges tinted red. Bound in Valmadonna- custom blind-tooled maroon crushed morocco, spine in compartments and titled in gilt. Folio. Housed in fitted slip-case. [Vinograd, Naples 19; Steinschneider, col. 873, no. 44; Thes. A69; Goff, H-40; Offenberg, 106; BMC XIII, p. 58; Iakerson, no. 59.] Naples, [Joshua Solomon ben Israel Nathan Soncino], 1491. $10,000 - $15,000 Lot 78 Lot 79 ❧ The present copy of Sepher HaShorashim is heavily annotated with hundreds of marginal annotations that are regularly introduced with the initials “Aleph Aleph.” This certainly stands for “Amar Eliyahu, ” indicating the glosses of Elijah (Bachur) Levita (1469–1549) the famed Hebrew philologist, grammarian, and lexicographer. Born in Germany, he spent most of his life in Italy (Padua, Venice, and Rome) where he taught Hebrew language. It was largely through Levita’s Nimmukim for Sefer Michlol (ed. Venice, 1545) and for Sepher HaShorashim (ed. Venice, 1547) that many of his pupils, including many renowned Christian humanists, were able to access Kimchi’s grammatical writings. The sheer number of manuscript annotations in the present volume is evident that it was once owned by a scholar who made assiduous use of its contents to master the finer points of Hebrew grammar. An added manuscript leaf in an early hand, tipped in at the end of the volume reproduces the text on the printed ff. 166r-167r. See Treasures of the Valmadonna Trust Library-Otzrath Ya’akov, Incunables no. 42 79 KIMCHI, DAVID (RaDa”K). Sepher Michlol [grammar]. Edited by Elijah Levita. TWO COPIES each with specific typographic variants. Each volume with title set within architectural arch. Each volume with Latin marginalia in an early hand, extensive in second volume. ff. 268, (1). Lightly stained. First volume (entitled on spine “Type I”) bound in Valmadonna-custom deep cherry crushed morocco tooled in gilt; second volume (entitled on spine “Type II”) bound in contemporary limp vellum with Valmadonna-custom morocco spine label and gilt-tooling. Housed in slip-case. 12mo. [Vinograd, Venice 246.] Venice, Cornelio Adelkind for Daniel Bomberg, 1545. $1500 - $2000 ❧ TWO VARIANT ISSUES OF THE SAME EDITION.