Psalms (Tehillim). With commentary of David Kimchi (Rada”k)

(BIBLE).

Joseph and Neriyah Chaim, Mordechai and Hezekiah Montero

(Bologna)

1477

FIRST EDITION OF KIMCHI’S COMMENTARY. Two differening type faces: Text of Psalms in bold, square type; commentary of Kimchi in petite rounded letters. Censorship of anti-Christological references. The Mayer Sulzberger Copy

Vinograd, Bologna 1; Goff 28; Goldstein 21; Offenberg 34; Steinschneider, p. 1, no. 1; Thes. A13; Wineman Cat. 14. HUC copy lacks opening 10 leaves

FIRST EDITION OF ANY PORTION OF THE BIBLE IN HEBEW CHARACTERS The Kimchis were a Narbonne family that originated in Spain. At the time of the Almohad persecution, the family crossed the Pyrenees to the more tolerant clime of Provence. There they devoted their linguistic and grammatical talents to Biblical exegesis. Both the father Joseph (c.1105-c.1170) and the son David (1160?-1235?) had a penchant for anti-Christian polemic, which especially imbues Rada”k’s commentary to Psalms. Eventually, the polemic material from Psalms would be collected in a special work entitled Teshuvoth LaNotzrim (Responses to the Christians), included in Lipmann Muelhausen’s Sepher Nitzachon (Altdorf, 1644). See F. Talmage, David Kimhi: The Man and the Commentaries (1975)