Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

Otzar Leshon ha-Kodesh: Thesaurus Linguae Sanctae (The Treasury of the Holy Language)

London: S. Roycroft for G. Sawbridge, 1680. First Edition. Hardcover. Quarto. [pi]4, a4, A-8F4 (= 676 leaves). [16], 1056, 1049-1328 [i.e., 1352pp., with numerous errors in pagination]. Text in two columns with plain ruled borders throughout. Full reversed calf (suede), double-ruled panels with corner flourons, and decorated spine compartments. Remains of paper label with shelf mark at spine. (Some light, mottled discoloration to covers; small tear at spine cap; lower bottom joint worn along 1-1/2 inch section; Small puncture at 2Z4 with loss of a few letters; light dampstain at final 20 leaves, mostly confined to bottom outer corner (and more heavily at the last few leaves). A very good copy with crisp, fresh text, in an attractive and unusual contemporary binding.

First edition of this lexicon and concordance of the Hebrew Bible. Reissued in 1686, a second edition was published in 1769. While the author promises a treatment of the Aramaic words in a separate dictionary, he would die before completing it. Following the preface is a substantial eight-page essay of about 7500 words, Dissertatio philologico-theologica, de decem Dei nominibus Hebraicis / A Philologico-theological Dissertation of the Ten Hebrew Names of God: The Tetragrammaton; and its shortened form (yud-he); Shaddai; Adonai; Ehyeh; Elyon; Tzeva'ot; Elohei; Elohim; El.

The grammarian and lexicographer, William Robertson (fl. 1651-1685), was born in Scotland of unknown parentage. He began his studies at Edinburgh not long after the first professorship of Hebrew at a Scottish university (as a separate chair) was founded in 1642. Robertson may well have had instruction in Hebrew before his university studies, however, as the situation of the parochial and grammar schools of Scotland was notable in this regard: "One remarkable fact in connection with many of these schools is that in them the Hebrew language was taught and studied many years before it was taught in the universities" (Black). After graduating MA at the University of Edinburgh in 1651 Robertson moved to London and quickly established himself as a teacher of Hebrew. "[H]e published his first treatise, A Gate or Door to the Holy Tongue, Opened in English (1653), the first of six works -- chiefly Hebrew textbooks, lexicons, and studies of the Hebrew Bible -- between 1653 and 1656. Robertson found patrons in the puritan establishment: the member of parliament John Sadler, his 'worthy Maecenas' (The Second Gate, or, The Inner Door, 1655); the lord chief baron of the exchequer, William Steele (A Key to the Hebrew Bible, 1656); and, most notably, his distinguished pupil and benefactor Lady Ranelagh, née Katharine Boyle, the beloved elder sister of Robert Boyle, to whom Robertson dedicated his first work... Between 1674 and 1685 he published six works on the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages, several of which were influential and established his reputation in Europe." (ODNB). According to G. F. Black, Robertson's Thesaurus was a primary source for the Clavis Linguae Sanctae Veteris Testamenti of Christian Stock (1672-1733). First published at Jena in 1717, a sixth edition of Stock's popular textbook, revised by Johann Friedrich Fischer, appeared in 1752. In addition to language study aids, Robertson edited the Hebrew text of the Psalms, and revised Elias Hutter's Hebrew translation of the New Testament (1661). This latter work is now quite scarce as a great part of the edition was destroyed in the 1666 Great Fire of London. In 1680 Robertson was appointed University teacher of Hebrew at Cambridge "at a salary of twenty pounds a year" (Black).

"A pedagogical revolutionary with an egalitarian message and a passionate and parenthetical style, Robertson believed that Hebrew was not an esoteric language and that almost any man, given plain and careful instruction, could learn Hebrew even without the aid of a teacher so that he might perceive 'truth in its first fountain, and Primitive purity' (A Gate or Door to the Holy Tongue, preface)... Robertson, moreover, was convinced that the female sex was fully capable enough 'of this kinde of learning; of which I had often before in my own thoughts perswaded my self, in consideration of that readinesse of wit, and quicknesse of understanding and apprehension, so naturall to them' (ibid., Epistle Dedicatory). He sought to simplify instructional methods and to 'take quite out of the way, those obstructing Mountains of difficultie' (A Key to the Hebrew Bible, preface), stressing the importance of reducing Hebrew words to their roots, and teaching the language by alphabetical principles rather than by scriptural texts" (ODNB).

According to R. Smitskamp, Robertson's Thesaurus "aims at embodying all the preceding lexica, quoting the authors for each lemma and thus making all these publications superfluous." In his Historia lexicorum, Johann Christoph Wolf (1683-1739) praised the work and even calls it a “Lexicon lexicorum & thesaurus thesaurorum.” William Orme (1787-1830), however, believed the Thesaurus was "not complete enough for a concordance, and too cumbrous for a convenient Lexicon." Very good. Item #48824

Typographical notes: "The slight but clear 10pt Hebrew is cast on a longer body so as to enable the printer to add vocalisation without loosing too much space: in consequence the Hebrew characters stand slightly above the line. The head-lines exhibit the large Hebrew types used already by Selden [in his De jure naturali et gentium juxta disciplinam Ebraeorum] in 1640" (Smitskamp).

References: G. F. Black, “The Beginnings of the Study of Hebrew in Scotland” [in:] Studies in Jewish Bibliography (New York, 1929). 471; 476-478 (bibliography). ESTC R-28804. Fürst 3:162. Harrison & Laslett, The Library of John Locke, 2489. Orme, Bibl. Biblica, 377. R. Smitskamp, cat. 611, no. 298. Steinschneider (Bibl. Handbuch) no. 1697. Wing (rev. 1988) R-1621. Wolf, Historia lexicorum, 170-174.

Full title and imprint: אוצר לשון הקודש Thesaurus Linguae Sanctae compendiosè scil. contractus, planè tamen reseratus, pleneque explicatus: sive, Concordantiale lexicon Hebraeo-Latino-Biblicum: in quo, lexica omnia Hebraica, huc usque edita, methodicè, succinctè, & quasi synopticōs, exhibentur; una cum concordantiis Hebraicis; in quibus, universae, & singulae voces Hebraeo-Biblicae, (cum locis suis, quibus, in textu, occurrunt,) interpretatae sunt, & expositae; atque etiam, grammaticè, sub suis propriis radicibus quibuslibet, resolutae; ad faciliorem, magisque commodum studiosorum, & Hebraeo-Philologicorum, usum & progressum, in Lingua sancta Hebraica discenda, vel docenda. Opus, jamjam, cum Deo opt. max. ad umbilicum perdectum; quale verò, (in universa Biblia Hebraea,) nunquàm antehâc, à quoquam attentatum, nedum perfectum & editum; &c. prout in praefatione sequente pleniùs explicantur: a Gulielmo Robertson A.M. Londini, Excudebat Samuel Roycroft, in linguis orientalibus, typographus regius. Impensis Georgij Sawbridge; apud quem prostant venales, ad insignia Bibliorum, in vico vulgò vocato, Ludgate Hill, MDCLXXX. [1680].

Price: $750.00

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