Sefer Michlol – Venice, 1545 – Printed by Bomberg –...

Sefer Michlol – Venice, 1545 – Printed by Bomberg – Large Format Edition / Sefer HaShorashim – Venice, 1546-1548 – Many Glosses

Two grammatical books printed in the 1540s in one volume:

• Sefer Michlol, Hebrew grammar, by R. David Kimchi – the Radak, with annotations by R. Eliyahu Ashkenazi [Bachur]. Venice: Daniel Bomberg, [1545].
Comprised of three parts ("she'arim") – Grammar of Verbs, Grammar of Nouns and Grammar of Particles.
Large format. A small-format edition was printed concurrently.
• Sefer HaShorashim, Hebrew roots, by R. David Kimchi (the Radak) with annotations by R. Eliyahu Bachur. Venice: Giustiniani, 1546-1548.
The title page is dated Cheshvan 1546, but the printing was only completed in Adar 1548, as stated in R. Eliyahu Bachur's poem at the end of the book.
Title page also contains Latin title: "Thesaurus Linguae Sanctae".
On front endpaper – inscriptions in Italian script on lending of the book.
In Sefer HaShorashim – tens of glosses in Italian script. The glosses include original content, analysis and critiques of the author's statements, as well as comments and expansions. In several places, the writer refers to his novellae on the Torah, Talmud and Zohar. Possibly, the writer is R. Avraham Segari, Av Beit Din of Casale, posek and kabbalist and a foremost Italian rabbi of the 18th century.
Censorship expurgations to one leaf.
Signatures of the censors Giovanni Domenico Carretto (dated 1610) and Domenico Gerosolimitano (dated 1598) on both sides of last leaf.

Michlol: 69 leaves. Shorashim: [2] pages, 5-548 columns, [1] page. 31 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains, including dampstains. Worming and small tears to margins of several leaves. Verso of first book's title page repaired with paper. Handwritten inscriptions of several words inside title frame of second book. Early leather binding, worn and damaged, with open tears to spine.