Compendium Hebraeae Grammatices per Henricum Uranium Ressensem, ita recognitum ac locupletatum, ut iam planè novum sit opusculum

A SAMMELBAND OF TWO HEBREW SCHOLASTIC TEXTS - BOUND FOR A 16^TH-CENTURY LUCCA MERCHANT

8vo. 102, [2] pp. Collation: A-F⁸ G⁴. Colophon on l. G4r. Woodcut printer's device on l. G4v. Roman, italic and Hebrew types.

Second, greatly enlarged edition (the first 1534 Cologne editon has only 23 leaves) of this quite successful Hebrew grammar that was reprinted again in 1548, 1551, 1559, and 1568.

VD16, U-211; USTC, 623740; F. Hieronymus, 1488 Petri-Schwabe 1988. Eine traditionsreiche Basler Offizin im Spiegel ihrer frühen Drucke, Basel, 1997, no. 308.

(bound with:)

DROSAY, Jean de (Ioannes Drosaeus, d. 1550 ca.). Alphabetum Hebraicum, decerptum e quadrilingui Grammatica, cujus auctor est Ioannes Drosaeus […] Parisiis, Excudebat C. Wechelus, sub scuto Basiliensi, in vico Iacobaeo: & sub Pegaso, in vico Bellovacensi, M.D.XLIII. (Paris, Chrétien Wechel, 1543).

8vo. [8] leaves. Collation: A⁸. Printer's device on the title page. Roman, italic and Hebrew types.

First edition. Drosay is also the author of Grammaticae quadrilinguis partitiones, in gratiam puerorum (Paris, Wechel, 1544).

USTC, 153698; L. Schwarzfuchs, Le livre hébreu à Paris au XVI^e siècle, Paris, 2004, no. 130.

Two works in one volume (142x95 mm). Contemporary calf, panel within blind-ruled concentric frames with four gilt corner pieces and a gilt centerpiece among the gilt initials “BB”, spine with three raised bands and gilt ornaments, gilt edges (worn and rubbed, spine partly repaired, joints partly opened). On the front first flyleaf and on both title pages ownership entry of Bartolomeo Balbiani, a member of an important family of Luccan merchants, who were mostly active in Lyon and Antwerp in the first half of the 16^th century (cf. G. Miani, Balbani, Francesco, in: “Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani”, vol. 5, Rome, 1963, s.v.). The book was bound for him as the initials on the panels clearly refer to him. On the front flyleaf is another later ownership entry (“Di stefano balbani”), which seems to indicate that the book remained in the family's possession for some time after Bartolomeo's death. With a few manuscript marginal annotations in Hebrew. Some light browning and staining, but a good, genuine copy.

An interesting miscellany of two extremely rare Hebrew school texts put together by and bound for a Luccan merchant living in France or in the Flanders in the mid-16^th century.