Lexicon chaldaicum, talmudicum et rabbinicum, nunc primum in lucem editum a Johanne Buxtorfio Filio.... by Buxtorf, Johann, the elder - 1640

Basel: Sumptibus et typis Ludovici König, 1640. Very large folio (36 cm, 14.2"). Frontis., pl., [6] ff., 2680 cols., [32] ff.

Second edition of the second Biblical Hebrew–Latin dictionary compiled by Johann Buxtorf the Elder (1564–1629), left incomplete at his death and completed and published by his son in 1639. A leading Hebraist of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Buxtorf taught Hebrew at Basel for nearly 40 years, and was a friend and correspondent of Bezè and Grynaeus. This is not to be confused with Buxtorf's preceding Hebrew–Latin dictionary, the Lexicon hebraicum et chaldaicum (1607), another famous and standard reference.
    The text is printed in double columns in Hebrew and Latin, in roman and italic, sparsely decorated with woodcut head- and tailpieces, ornaments, and one large historiated initial. The title-page is preceded by a => full-page engraved portrait of the author and an added engraved title-page dated 1639, in an allegorical frame flanked by figures of Daniel and Esra with an image of the Tower of Babel above and a king praying in a gothic cathedral below.
    Provenance: Engraved title-page with minute owner's inscription dated 1723 of => Ernst Wilh[elm] Christoph Christfels of Fürth, Germany, who published a treatise, "Concerning Ialtha, daughter of the prince, an example of the learned women of the Jewish race," in 1725, citing Buxtorf's Institutio epistolaris hebraica of 1629 at least once (and using this dictionary for the Hebrew vocabulary?).
    
    VD17 12:128987E; Vancil, Cordell Collection, 40. 19th-century paper imitating tree calf over boards, paper spine label; rubbed and spine paper cracking. Ex-library: bookplate on front pastedown and old notes in ink to same. Engraved title-page and portrait chipped at edges and lightly wormed at margins, the former also repaired at one margin. Generally lightly browned with occasional foxing and staining; smudges from printer’s and annotators’ inks; a few very small tears and holes none causing loss to text. Early repairs (or paper twisted while still wet?) on two leaves. Occasional marginalia, interlinear writing, and underlining, in black and red ink, by an early owner. Old bookseller’s note in English inserted between two leaves. => A remarkably strong volume, given its great size.