[...] De rudimentis hebraicis. Colophon: Phorce in aedib. Tho. Anshelmi sexto. kal. Apriles M.D.VI.

THE FIRST WORK PRINTED IN GERMAN-SPEAKING TERRITORY USING MOVABLE HEBREW TYPE

Folio (287x207 mm). [1], 620 [i.e 622], [5] pp. Several errors in pagination: page following p. 261 not numbered, numbers 543-544 omitted in pagination, number 616 repeated, one additional leaf numbered 589 inserted between pp. 588-589. With headlines, initial indicators and pagination; without catchwords and signature marks. First leaf recto: Principium libri. First leaf verso: Ioannis Reuchlin Phorcensis LL. doc. ad Dionysium fratrem suum germanum De rudimentis hebraicis. Roman, Greek and Hebrew types. Printer's device and Reuchlin's woodcut emblem at the end. Paged from right to left. Capital spaces with guide letters for initials. Later blind-ruled calf, lettering piece on spine (worn and rubbed, spine renewed, large portion of the panels roughly repaired). Worm tracks to the outer and inner margin of the first three leaves not affecting the text, a few marginal tears, some leaves or quires a bit loose, small hole to the last leaf not touching the text, two inked-out stamps on the penultimate leaf, some occasional light foxing. Manuscript note on the first leaf verso inked out. A good, wide-margined copy bearing several manuscript annotations in Latin and Hebrew by a contemporary hand.

First edition of the first substancial Hebrew dictionary and grammar written for Christian scholars, which had a great impact on the development of the study of Hebrew texts by Christians in the Renaissance period.

Reuchlin developed an interest in Hebrew in the early 1490s and published his first study of Kabbalah already in 1494.. The first result of his studies in Hebrew linguistics, philology and literature was the epoch-making De rudimentis hebraicis, a Latin-language lexicon and students' guide to Hebrew grammar and pronunciation, imposed from right to left, that mainly followed the teachings of Rabbi David Kimhi (ca. 1160-ca. 1235) on the subject. Each letter of the lexicon which, like Kimhi's Sefer ha-shorashim, is arranged according to Hebrew root, begins with a different Hebrew epigraph in Rashi script usually invoking God's name, although tsade starts yehi shem ha-mashiah mevorakh, testifying to the text's Christian provenance. Although a brief Hebrew grammar, compiled by Reuchlin's younger colleague Konrad Pellikan (1478-1556), had appeared two years prior, the present text was the real pioneering work of its kind by a Christian intellectual and would have a profound influence on subsequent Christian Hebraist scholarship (cf. H. Greive, Die hebräische Grammatik Johannes Reuchlins: De rudimentis hebraicis, in: “Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft”, 90, 1978, pp. 395-409).

Johann Reuchlin (Capnio) was born on 28 December, 1454 or 22 February 1455 in Pforzheim, Baden. On 19 May 1470 he matriculated at the University of Freiburg but soon afterwards became a chorister in Pforzheim. As a tutor of a son of Margrave Charles I of Baden he had an opportunity to study in Paris in 1473; from 1474 he attended the University of Basel, receiving his BA in September 1474 and his MA in 1477. That same year he returned to Paris to study Greek under Georgius Hermonymus. Thereafter he studied law in the universities of Orléans and Poitiers. In the winter of 1484-5 he was promoted doctor of laws at the University of Tübingen, where he matriculated on 9 December 1481 and was teaching Greek. Meanwhile, in the spring of 1482 he accompanied Count Eberhard the Bearded of Württemberg on a journey to Florence and Rome. Thereafter he remained in Eberhard's service until the count's death (24 February 1496), residing in Stuttgart from 1483 but frequently travelling on diplomatic errands, notably to Italy in 1490 and to the imperial court in Linz in 1492. On this latter occasion he obtained the honorific title of count palatine and was raised to the rank of hereditary nobility. From 1496 to 1498 Reuchlin lived in political exile in Heidelberg, there joining the circle of Johann von Dalberg. In 1498 he spent some time in Rome as an envoy of Philip, elector Palatine, and subsequently returned to Stuttgart. In 1500 the Swabian League created a three-member tribunal which Reuchlin joined in 1502 as appointee of the princes. When the tribunal was moved from Tübingen to Augsburg in 1512-13, he retired to private life, taking up residence in Stuttgart. Amid the disturbances caused in 1519 by the war against Duke Ulrich of Württemberg, he sought refuge in Ingolstadt, where he matriculated on 21 October 1519. From March 1520 he held an appointment as professor of Greek and Hebrew, but after a year he returned to Stuttgart. In the winter term of 1521-2 he taught Greek and Hebrew in Tübingen. By then he was ailing, and after the waters of Bad Liebenzell had brought no relief, he died in Stuttgart.

While Reuchlin promoted the study of Greek and introduced neo-Latin comedy in Germany, it was his pioneering work in the study of Hebrew language and of the Cabbala that earned him his historical significance. He used his extensive travels to establish contact with other humanists and learned Jews and to acquire manuscripts and printed works for his library, which was one of the largest private book collections of his time. In old age he surrounded himself, both in Stuttgart and during his teaching spells at Ingolstadt and Tübingen, with a circle of talented disciples.

Reuchlin produced a Latin dictionary, Vocabularius breviloquus, commissioned by the Basel printer Johann Amerbach. Anonymously published in 1478, it was frequently reprinted. He also translated a number of short texts from Greek and Hebrew and composed two Latin comedies, Scaenica progymnasmata (1498) and Sergius vel caput capitis (1504). His principal scholarly works are a Hebrew grammar and dictionary, De rudimentis hebraicis (1506), complemented by De accentibus et orthographia linguae hebraicae (1518); and the cabbalistic dialogues De verbo mirifico (1494) and De arte cabalistica (1517). He also wrote in German three books on the Jewish question: Tütsch Missive, warumb die Juden so lang im Ellend sind (1504); Augenspiegel (1511); and Ain clare Verstentnus (1512); a fourth book on the same issue was written in Latin: Defensio contra calumniatores suos Colonienses (1513).

When Johann Pfefferkorn began his campaign for the suppression of all Hebrew books, the Emperor Maximilian I sought the advice of several experts. Of these Reuchlin was the only one to oppose Pfefferkorn in his assessment. This stand involved him in a bitter literary confrontation with Pfefferkorn, the Dominicans, and the theologians of Cologne and in 1513 led to inquisitorial proceedings induced by Jacob of Hoogstraten. On 29 March 1514 Reuchlin was acquitted by the court of the bishop of Speyer, George, count Palatine, but Hoogstraten appealed the case to Rome. Matters went well for Reuchlin until the proceedings were halted by Pope Leo X in August 1516. In the meantime the controversy spread well beyond Germany as both parties attacked each other in print and sought support for their positions. Reuchlin demonstrated his reputation in the scholarly world with the publication of a selection of letters addressed to him: Clarorum virorum epistolae latinae, graecae et hebraicae (March 1514; enlarged May 1519) with prefaces by the Tübingen humanists Johann Hiltebrant and Philippus Melanchthon. This was followed by the publication of an anonymous satirical parody, Epistolae obscurorum virorum ad Ortvinum Gratium (1515-17) of which Johannes Crotus Rubianus and Ulrich von Hutten were the principal authors. While the flood of polemical pamphlets kept swelling, Franz von Sickingen even threatened to use force to make the Dominicans adopt a conciliatory stand (1519-20). The controversy surrounding Reuchlin was now being linked with the early conflicts around Luther. A pamphlet of 1521, originating in Strasbourg, showed Luther, Hutten, and Reuchlin as ‘patroni libertatis'. Reuchlin, however, kept his distance when Luther deferentially courted his favour in a letter of 14 December 1518. On 23 June 1520, a Roman tribunal found him guilty. Reuchlin appealed and, apart from considerable financial losses, remained unscathed (cf. H. Scheible, Johann Reuchlin, in: “Contemporary of Erasmus”, P.G. Bietenholz, ed., Toronto-Buffalo-London, 1987, III, pp. 145-147).

VD16, R-1252; Panzer, VIII, 228, no. 9; Steinschneider, 1670; Proctor, 11754; Benzing, pp. 24-25, no. 90; Adams, Adams, R-383.

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