Lot 660
Pagninus, Santes
Rare Books, Manuscripts & Photographs
Auction: Rare Books, Manuscripts & Photographss | 10 May 2007
Description
[Hebrew title] Thesaurus linguae sanctae ex R. David Kimchi ….Sancte Pagnino Lucensi authore: contractior & emendatior. [Paris]: ex officina Roberti Stephani, [1548]. 4to., bound up to be read from right to left, printer's device on the titlepage, contemporary blind stamped and roll-tooled vellum over wooden boards, lacking ties, split to upper joint, lower corner of the upper cover worn, early ownership inscription at the foot of the titelepage, repeated on the verso of the last leaf
Footnote
Note: Adams P36; Renouard 71.5. Not in BM, STC French Books.
Important work by the Italian Santes Pagninus who was born in Lucca about 1470 and died in Lyons in 1541. A member of the Dominican Order, he numbered Savonarola as one of his teachers. His Thesaurus linguae sanctae ranks as one of the most famous and consulted Hebrew works of reference of the High Renaissance and had a long lasting impact on biblical studies and translations. It is known to have been used in connection with the King James version of the Bible. One of several books produced between 1539 and 1549 for which Estienne commissioned a new Hebrew type from the type cutter Jehan Arnoul. Armstrong suggests that this ambitious programme of Hebrew publishing was encouraged by news of the forthcoming appointment of a King's Printer in Hebrew which Estienne subsequently held. (Armstrong: Robert Estienne, p. 120)
Provenance: Ownership inscription on the titlepage and at the end of Gregorius Vogytt recording his purchase from Martina Busel in 1563.