Otzar leshon ha-kodesh: hoc est Thesaurus linguae sanctae (The Treasury of the Holy Language)

Lyon: Sebastien Gryphius, 1529. First edition. Hardcover. Very good. Folio. [16]ff., 7152 [i.e., 2752] col., [2]ff. Woodcut historiated title border and large historiated initial at first page of the dedication; Hebrew lettrines at each section; printed marginalia; printer's device at colophon. Text in two columns. Modern leatherette (laminated over an earlier binding with stamped vignettes), hand-lettered title section from early vellum binding preserved at spine, discrete early inscription in neat hand at title, faint marginal embrowning, four minute worm holes at title, fading away to two by the sixth leaf, only one continuing throughout first half of text, with no significant loss, small clear tape repair at bottom margin title, other repairs at top corner and outer margin last three leaves, paper restoration at top corner final leaf. Overall a very good copy, crisp and clean.

Collation: [16 leaves, irregular signatures], a-z6, A-Z6, aa-zz6, AA-ZZ6, Aa-Zz6 (= 706 leaves; quire p with signature errors, but all catchwords in sequence).

First edition of this early Gryphius imprint, and "one of the first Latin dictionaries for the Hebrew of the Bible. Although it is partly based on [David] Kimchi's Sefer ha-Shorashim, it is certainly not a direct translation of it" (Hebraica Veritas). It was reprinted at Paris by Robert Estienne (1548); abridged versions were published by Plantin at Antwerp (1572) and at Leiden (1616). Born in Lucca, the Dominican friar Sante Pagnini (1470-1536) was "[o]ne of the leading philologists and Biblicists of his day. At sixteen he took the religious habit at Fiesole, where he studied under the direction of Savonarola and other eminent professors" (Cath. Enc.). Skillful in Semitic languages as well as Latin and Greek, Pagnini was appointed professor of classical languages at the College of Oriental Languages, founded by Pope Leo X. He dedicated twenty-five years to his famous translation of the Bible from the original languages into Latin, which was first published at Lyon in 1527-1528. The present work was issued as a scholarly companion to that seminal Bible edition. While in Rome, Pagnini had already published in 1523 a Hebrew dictionary entitled Enchiridion expositionis vocabularium Haruch, which was partly based on the Arukh of Nathan ben Yechiel. Later, in 1526, he also compiled a Hebrew grammar based on the work of David Kimchi. In his various lexical works and manuals, Johann Buxtorf was later to draw heavily upon the pioneering work of Pagnini (Burnett, From Christian Hebraism to Jewish Studies, 122). References: Adams P-36. Baudrier 8:52. Heide, Hebraica Veritas Cat. 23a. Schwarzfuchs (Lyon) 21. Steinschneider BH 106-107/1510.

Hebrew title: אוצר לשון הקודש.