The Ladino Bible of Ferrara [1553]: A Critical Edition by Moshe Lazar
Culver City, CA: Labyrinthos, 1992. Limited Edition. Hardcover. 4to. XXX, [10], 725pp. on acid-free paper. Original smyth-sewn cloth with decorations in silver on front board and spine. From the Sephardic Classical Library series. Printed in 1553, the Ferrara Bible was the first Spanish translation of the Hebrew Bible (the Tanach) for use by Sephardi Jews. It was funded by the typographer Yom-Tob ben Levi Athias (also known by his converso name, Jerónimo de Vargas), translated by Abraham ben Salomon Usque (the Portuguese Jew whose converso name was Duarte Pinhel), and dedicated in one printing to Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and in another to Doña Gracia Nasi. Unlike the Ladino Pentateuch, in which the Ladino is printed in Hebrew script, the Ladino Bible of Ferrara offered for the first time the complete Bible (Tanach) in romanized Ladino, modernized in language and style for Spanish and Portuguese Jews who, in the sixteenth century, left the Iberian Peninsula and returned to an openly Jewish practice in Italy and Holland. The Ferrara Bible was destined to become the most reprinted Jewish Bible (with slight variations) in the Netherlands, and the model for the first classical Spanish translation of the Scriptures (the "Santa Biblia" authored by Casiodoro de Reina in 1569, revised by Cipriano de Valera in 1602). Our critical edition includes an 8-page facsimile section from the original 1553 edition and contains a selected bibliography. Preface, Introduction, Notes and Commentaries in English; text in romanized Ladino. Near fine to fine condition. Item #39331
ISBN: 0911437576
Price: $125.00