PAGNINO, Santes.
Institutionum Hebraicarum abbreviatio. (With) Observationes in linguam Hebraicam.
Paris, ex officina Roberti Stephani, 1546£2,450.00
FIRST EDITION second work. 8vo. pp. 215 (i). [ii]. 61 (i). Second printed ‘in reverse’. Roman and Hebrew letter. Printer’s device to t-ps. First work with small spot to blank of t-p, small very light waterstain to blank lower margin of first two ll., a few ll. of both with very light marginal foxing, very good copies in c.1600 calf, rebacked. Occasional contemp. annotations in several hands.
Two very scarce grammatical works by one of the most respected Hebraists and biblical scholars of his day, the Italian friar Santes Pagnino (1470-1536), the first a second edition of his Institutionum Hebraicarum, but the first Estienne, the second the rare first edition of Pagnino’s Observationes.
The first work gives a comprehensive treatment of the alphabet, the accents used on Hebrew letters, and their emphasis. Pagnino then discusses nouns and verbs, with extensive treatment of the conjugations of verbs, before finally moving briefly onto adverbs. In the Observationes, Pagnino applies Hebrew grammar to comprehension of Talmudic or biblical texts, mostly concerning the transferability of some letters for others in specific instances in Talmudic texts. This discussion, summarised in a table at the beginning, is followed by an alphabetical catalogue of interesting, rare or difficult Greek words from biblical texts, which Pagnino explains and defines.
When he died in 1521, Pagnino was engaged on producing a biblical translation that would be as faithful as possible to the Hebrew version, begun under the patronage of Pope Leo X. Pagnino nominated Michael Servetus, who was later burned as a heretic in Geneva, as his successor in this project, and gave him his notes.
I: OCLC notes three copies only in the US, at Yeshiva University, Harvard and Johns Hopkins. II: OCLC notes two copies in the US only, at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and Johns Hopkins. Neither in Steinschneider, BM STC Fr. or Adams. I: Renouard 66.7. USTC 149694. II: Renouard 66.8. USTC 149627.In stock
