Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

Ruah ha-Hen [The SPIRIT of GRACE - Zech. 12.10]: Physica Hebraea Rabbi Aben Tybbon... hoc est, Spiritus Gratiae, inscribitur, nunc primum edita, et Latina facta

Yehudah ibn Tibbon [?]; Johann Isaac Levita; Moses Maimonides

Köln [Cologne]: Maternus Cholinus and Jakob Soter, 1555. First Latin diglot edition. Small octavo. A-L16 (= 88 leaves, signed on each side, e.g. A8 verso is signed A16; H9 missigned G9). [16], 157, [2, epigram], [1, blank]pp. Pagination and register run from right to left. Modern quarter sheep over marbled boards, gauffered edges, endleaves renewed. Library stamps and old owner entries at title; early marginal annotation and underlinings in the “Epistola”; text toned, with dampstain affecting bottom quarter of text throughout (not impairing legibility); marginal tear at C7. A good, complete copy with ample margins.

Third edition (per Steinschneider), and the first Latin diglot version of this anonymous introductory work. First published at Venice in 1544, it is notable that a Latin translation appears so soon after a sixteenth-century editio princeps of a Hebrew work. It comprises a commentary on and explanation of difficult terms in Maimonides' Moreh Nevukhim, with an elucidation of terminology in the translations of Arabic to Hebrew, as well as the jargon of medieval philosophical literature in general. As the editor of the present edition notes at the title, "Ru'ah Hen has been attributed to the renowned translator, R. Judah ben Saul ibn Tibbon (c. 1120-c. 1190), and to R. Jacob ben Abba Mari ben Samson Anatoli (13th century), also a translator of note. Ibn Tibbon, known as the 'father of translators,' was born in Granada, Spain, but relocated to Lunel in Provence, France, to escape the persecution of the Jews in the former location. He supported himself as a physician, coming into contact with many sages, one of whom R. Meshullam ben Jacob, requested that ibn tibbon translate R. Bahya ibn Paquda's Hovot ha-Levavot into Hebrew. In addition to translating that work from Arabic, ibn Tibbon also translated several other books into Hebrew, among them R. Judah Halevi's Kuzari, R. Saadiah Gaon's Emunot ve-De'ot, and R. Solomon ibn Gabirol's Middot ha-Nefesh and Mivhar Peninim" (Heller). While this is the fourth known printing of the work, it is the first to include vowel points, and the translation of the formerly Jewish convert to Christianity, Johann Isaac Levita (1515-1577), a descendant of Elias Levita, the most famous in his time of those Jews who sought scholarly contact with Christians, and taught Christians Hebrew. As an added bonus, the present edition includes Maimonides' De astrologia epistola elegans. The celebrated English jurist and Hebrew scholar, John Selden, is known to have had a copy of Ruah ha-Hen in his library (Oxford Library note).

Adams J-403. Cf. Heller, The Sixteenth Century Hebrew Book, 815 (noting the present ed.). Steinschneider 1, col. 639; no. 4038. VD 16 I1. Item #48871

Hebrew title: רוח החן.

Price: $1,500.00