Johann Reuchlin,
Principium Libri
[De rudimentis Hebraicis liber primus (-tertius)].
Pforzheim: Thomas Anshelm, 27 March 1506.
Text in Latin and Hebrew. Paginated right to left (Hebrew style).
It is known that 1000 copies of this edition were printed (see e. g. M. Heller, The Sixteenth Century Hebrew Book, p.17).
SCARCE and finely printed FIRST EDITION of Reuchlin's groundbreaking De rudimentis hebraicis ("On the Fundamentals of Hebrew"), the first Hebrew grammar and lexicon written by a Christian scholar. It had a profound influence on Hebrew studies in the Renaissance and facilitated the "ad fontes" trend in Biblical studies, one of the cornerstones of the Reformation. The work provided the single most important grammatical aid to the study of the Hebrew language by Christian reformers. Both Martin Luther and Ullrich Zwingli studied De rudimentis hebraicis thoroughly.
De rudimentis hebraicis, which (along with De Arte Cabalistica) is Reuchlin's most famous work, was intended for well-educated scholars with no prior acquaintance with Hebrew. Reuchlin presents and explains the pronunciation of Hebrew letters, assuming a reader unfamiliar with the subject. Yet the book contains sufficient information to take the diligent reader to a quite advanced stage of Hebrew knowledge: for example, the code given on page 612 to allow very advanced students to read the unpointed rabbinic Hebrew characters.
Reuchlin's "handbook of Hebrew study is entitled to the honor of being the first significant such work by a Christian scholar [...]. [It] present[ed] the Hebrew alphabet with approximate Latin equivalents, including instructions about pronunciation, for example of the ﬨ: "Sibilus that lingua inter superiores & inferiores dentes inserta & ore bleso" [Item 1.19:11]. It is a pleasant conceit of this pioneering manual that its pages are numbered in reverse, that is, from right to left à la a book in Hebrew. [...] Reuchlin had learned Hebrew mainly from Jacob ben Jehiel Loans (✝ ca. 1506), and he based the Rudimenta on several works by Rabbi David Kimchi (ca. 1160 - 1235), and, according to Greive, also on a work by Moses Kimchi (✝ ca. 1190). Although he understood the incompatibilities between the grammatical systems of Hebrew and Latin and Greek, Reuchlin used Latin paradigms to describe Hebrew, showing, for example, Hebrew equivalents for the five noun cases of Latin." (J. Pelikan, et al, The Reformation of the Bible: The Bible of the Reformation, pp. 18, 103)
Johann Reuchlin (1455 - 1522) was one of the foremost humanists of the Renaissance. He believed that he could most successfully learn ancient wisdom through a solid grounding in Hebrew, and it is his work that founded Christian Hebrew studies. He also studied Kabbalistic doctrines and founded a school of Christian Kabbalah. He was frequently at odds with the church authorities over his "hebraizing." He refused to join in Pfefferkorn's crusade to destroy all of Hebrew learning. He was drawn into the "Battle of the Books" against his will but he fought to save Hebrew learning. He was even accused of heresy, but acquitted by Pope Leo X.
Chancery Folio. Leaves measure 28 cm x 20 cm. Bound in 17th- or early 18th-century vellum, with gilt-lettered red morocco label to spine; edges speckled red.
Paginated right to left; (1), 261, (1), 262-542, 545-588, (2), 589-616, 616-620, [5] pp. Printed without signature marks.
Collated and COMPLETE, including the rare supplementary half-leaf inserted between pp. 588 and 589 (with verso numbered '589'); the blank between pp.450 and 451 cancelled (as usual) with stub visible.
With large woodcut of Reuchlin's coat of arms on recto of the penultimate (i.e. 2nd from left) leaf, and Anshelm's woodcut device on verso of same leaf.
Printed in Roman and Hebrew types, in single column; 36 lines per page, plus headlines. Initial spaces with printed guides (unrubricated).
First page (verso of rightmost leaf) with a two-word title "PRINCIPIVM LIBRI," without imprint; text of De rudimentis Hebraicis begins on verso of that leaf (p.1). Imprint from colophon on verso of the penultimate leaf; that page and the facing recto contain a letter from Georg Simler to Thomas Anselm. (Georg Simler (1477 - 1536) was a member of Reuchlin's humanist circle and a rector of the town's Latin school in Pforzheim, who numbered among his students Philipp Melanchthon; after 1510 he was Professor at the University of Tübingen). Recto of the final (i.e. leftmost) leaf contains words "FINIS LIBRI" and a poem "CANON" explaining that the book is to be read right to left.
Very Good antiquarian condition. Complete. Binding rubbed, spine label slightly chipped, wear to edges with vellum worn through on fore-edges of both covers and partly split. Old stamps effaced by inking-over on blank parts of title page and the final page (ink bleeding through to p.1 with a few words of text obscured but legible). Very light browning to several leaves; occasional small ink-spots and some other light, harmless stains (mostly marginal); occasional light soiling. A few leaves with minor marginal tears (no loss). A couple of tiny wormholes to several leaves at the end of the volume (not affecting legibility). One leaf (pp.291-2) with two old marginal repairs affecting a single letter. Generally, a nice, clean, wide-margined and unrestored example of this very important and scarce work.
Adams R383; Benzing, Reuchlin, 90; Alberts, Anshelm, 29; Furst II, 151; Geiger 110; Panzer,; VIII, 228; Pelikan, Reformation of the Bible 1:19.
