Principium libri

Author/Creator:

Reuchlin, Johann, 1455-1522

Publication/Creation:

[Phorce (i.e. Pforzheim)] : [In Aedib. Tho. Anshelmi], [Sexto Kal. Apriles Anno MD.VI. (27 March, 1506)]

Format:

Book

More Details

Additional/Related Title Information

Full Title:

Principium libri

Uniform Title:

De rudimentis hebraicis. 1506

Series Titles:

Exhibited: Pitts Theology Library. A Book More Precious than Gold: Reading the Printed Book Alongside Its Previous Owners and Readers.
Pitts Theology Library. Richard C. Kessler Reformation Collection.
Exhibited: Pitts Theology Library. Martin Luther’s Reform of University and Church.

Related/Included Titles:

Ioannis Reuchlin Phorcensis LL. Doc. ad Dionysium fratrem suum Germanum De rudimentis hebraicis ...

Variant Titles:

Ioannis Reuchlin Phorcensis LL. Doc. ad Dionysium fratrem suum Germanum De rudimentis hebraicis ...

Related Names

Additional Author/Creators:

Simler, Georg, -1535
Anshelm, Thomas, printer

Subjects/Genre

Subjects:

Hebrew language--Dictionaries--Latin
Hebrew language--Grammar

Description/Summary

Language:

Latin

Physical Type/Description:

1 unnumbered pages, 1-620, that is, 621 pages, 3 unnumbered pages ; 30 cm (folio).

General Note:

Unsigned, pages numberd at foot of page. Many pages misnumbered, some apparently missed in paging, but actually accounted for later in sequence. Actual page count is off by 1 (p. 616 should be 617 et seqq.) or by 3 if p. 543-4 were really missed in page count, which appears most likely.
Caption title: Ioannis Reuchlin Phorcensis LL. Doc. ad Dionysium fratrem suum Germanum De rudimentis hebraicis ...
Printed and bound in Hebrew order (right to left).
Text in Latin and Hebrew includes a Hebrew-Latin dictionary and a grammar of Hebrew in Latin.
Printer's device on p. [623]; Reuchlin's coat-of-arms on p. [624]
"Georgius Symler Thom[a]e Anshelmo bene agere cum literis": p. [623]
Pages misnumbered: 41 misnumbered as "50"; 50 as "41"; 263 as "262"; 285 as "284"; 398 as "389"; 536 as "535"; 591 as "589"; 605 as "604; 617 as "616"; p. 262, 590 not numbered; num. 534, 543, 544 not used in s
The pages are numbered at the foot of the page, though many are miss-numbered. Some pages were apparently missed in paging, but accounted for later in the sequence. The actual page count is off by m1 (p. 616 should be 617 et segg.) or by 3 if (p. 543-4) were really missed in page count, which appears most likely. This volume was printed and bound in Hebrew order (right to left). It is bound in blind-stamped pigskin over wooden boards, clasps intact.
The manuscript note on the tile page is a dedicatory poem from "Mattheus Aurgallus" to "Joanne Capriina." Manuscript marginalia appear throughout the text.
This is the first (and only) printing of the Hebrew grammar and the first Hebrew-Latin dictionary by a European Christian Humanist, the famous Pfortzheim scholar, Johann Reuchlin. This pioneering work made Hebrew accessible for the first time to Christian Biblical scholars. According to the last two leaves, Reuchlin finished his work on March 9, 1506, and it was in type by March 27. Reuchlin himself paid the costs of printing. Few copies of the edition's 1,000 copies were sold. They were not exhausted before 1537 when S. Munster issued a heavily revised version of the work. The tile page boasts a seven line poem titled, "Tehilah" (song of praise) by the humanist Matthaeus Aurogallus, which may be in that scholar's own handwriting. M. Aurogallus was a professor of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew at Wittenberg. He issued his own Hebrew grammar in 1539, and it is possible this volume was annotated by him in preparation for that edition.
Richard C. Kessler Reformation Collection--Pitts Theology Library

Citation/Reference Note:

BM STC German, 1455-1600, p. 732
VD16 R 1252

Related Resources Link:

Exhibited: "Martin Luther's Reform of University and Church" Pitts Theology Library, September 15 - November 26, 2014
"A Book More Precious than Gold: Reading the Printed Book Alongside Its Previous Owners and Readers"
For more information see

Additional Identifiers

Catalog ID (MMSID):

990028041130302486

OCLC Number:

09914711

Barcode:

000015270368