Annotated bibliography of Hebraica

This article enumerates selected primary sources relating to Hebrew and Hebraic scholarship in the holdings of the Folger Shakespeare Library generated during the Folger Institute symposium Jews, Christians, and Hebraic Scholarship in Early Modern Europe.

• Balmes, Abraham ben Meir de, ca. 1440-1523.

[Miknēh Abrām] = Peculium Abrae: grammatica Hebraea vna / cum Latino nuper edita per doctiss. virum magistrum Abraham :de Balmis artium & medicinae doctorem.

Impressa Venetijs: In aedibus Danielis Bo[m]bergi, XIIII K[a]l[endas] Dece[m]bris [18 Nov.] 1523.

Folger Call Number: 210- 977q

This book is in Hebrew and Latin and reads from right to left. The Hebrew text is vocalized.

• Torat ha-Mashiah = Euangelium secundum Matthaeum in lingua Hebraica: cum uersione Latina atque annotationibus Sebastiani :Munsteri ...: unà cum Epistola Pauli ad Hebraeos, Hebraicè & Latinè. [Bible. N.T. Matthew. Hebrew. 1582.]

Basileae: Apud Sebastianum Henric Petri, anno à Christo nato MDXXCII [1582]

Folger Call Number: 165- 931q

This Bible contains Hebrew and Latin in parallel columns. It is a reprint of Münster’s edition of 1537 (also: 1557, 1580) [retaining the dedication to Henry VIII of England] with the addition of an unpaged Hebrews in Hebrew and Latin. Also, the text of Matthew runs from left to right, that of Hebrew from the right. The Hebrew text is possibly based on the translation made by Shem-Tob ibn Shaprut in 1385.

• Biblia Hebraica / eorundem Latina interpretatio Xantis Pagnini Lucensis, Benedicti Ariae Montani Hispal. & quorundam aliorum :collato studio, ad hebraicam dictionem diligentissmè expensa. [Bible. O.T. Hebrew. 1571.]

[Genoa: Kafeh Elon Pah, 1571]

Folger Call Number: 264437 (folio)

The copy of this Bible includes the Apocryphal Books, printed left to right: Judith, Esther, Wisdom (of Solomon), Letter of Jeremiah, Baruch, Additions to Daniel, and Maccabees I-III.

• Precationes aliquot celebriores è Sacris Bibliis desumptae, ac in studiosoru[m] gratiam lingua Hebräica, Graeca & Latina in :enchiridij formulam redactae: adiectis benedictionibus, canticis, & si qua alia eiusdem sunt generis. [Bible. Polyglot. Selections. :1554.]

Parisiis: Apud Martinum Iuuenem ..., 1554.

Folger Call Number: 212- 701q

This includes selections of the Bible that have been printed in four columns across facing pages. The columns include each of these translations (in order): Greek, Vulgate Latin, the Latin version of Santi Pagnino, and Hebrew.

• Book of magic, with instructions for invoking spirits, etc. [manuscript], ca. 1577-1583.

Folger Call Number: V.b.26 (1) and V.b.26 (2)

Images available in LUNA: V.b.26 (1) and V.b.26 (2)

This grimoire contains detailed instructions for invoking spirits and casting spells. Through the magic of various invocations, the user could cure sickness, catch thieves, or find love. The manuscript was well-used. Successive generations of readers added notes to the margins, and one user supplied page numbers in a distinctive blue ink. Includes translations of Psalms 43, 47, 51, :54, 67, 121, 138, and 150 (p. 25-26).

• Boulaeze, Jean.

Ḳitsur, siue, Compendium, quantacunque ratione fieri potuit, amplissimum, totius linguae sanctae / Iochannis Bolezaei Arrotensis :diligentia, in iuuentutis gratiam collectum.

Parisiis: Apud Martinum Iuuenem ..., MDLXVI [1566]

Folger Call Number: Folio PJ4563 .B6 1566 Cage

This item is interleaved with manuscript versions of grammatical tables in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, written in an early hand.

• Broughton, Hugh, 1549-1612.

A concent of Scripture by H: Broughton

[London: For Gabriel Simson and William White?, 1590?]

Folger Call Number: STC 3851.2 copy 2

Provenance: signature of the author; interleaved with MS emendations and additions by the author (whose name is signed to the MS. “An addition to the Epist: to the Queene”) or possibly by a scribe; bookplate of Walter Wilson; MS. note “Formerly Dr. Nicolsons Book of Penrith.”

• Broughton, Hugh, 1549-1612.

Epistolae variae, et variarum linguarum, de Byzantiacis hebraeis, discupientibus erudiri in Christi D. Sacro volumine, atque adeo :de alio magno viro, quem nisi obliquè significare, Byzantij saltem non oportet, in re adhuc dubiâ. Argumenum docebit susius :sequens pagina.

Basileae: apud Conradum Waldkirch, MDXCIX. [1599]

Folger Call Number: STC 3862a.5

This text is concerned with Jewish relations, especially the efforts to convert Jewish people to Christianity. This text is printed in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, German, and English.

• Broughton, Hugh, 1549-1612.

[Petition to the King. For authority and allowance to expound the Apocalyps in Hebrew and Greek. Greek]

[Amsterdam: G. Thorp], Anno M.D.CXI. [1611]

Folger Call Number: STC 3876

This is a rare Greek version of Broughton’s “Petition.”

• Carafa, Giovanni Battista, b. 1495.

Dell’historie del Regno di Napoli / del s. Gian Batista Carrafa.

In Napoli: Appresso Giuseppe Cacchij, MDLXXII. [1572]

Folger Call Number: 185- 289q

Images available in LUNA: 185- 289q

The Folger copy is bound in a vellum fragment from an early Hebrew manuscript with text from Deuteronomy, Chapter 3.

• Catholic Church.

[Book of hours] Hore beate Marie virginis secundum usum Sarum [manuscript], ca. 1500.

Folger Call Number: V.a.228

This book has genealogical notes about Thomas Wakefeld, first Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, on the first two unnumbered leaves and Wakefeld’s genealogical additions to the calendar. This book also includes: a calendar of saints (leaves 1r-6v), Quindecim orationes (7r-20r), Hore beate Marie virginis secundum usum Sarum (21r-74v), Vigilie mortuorum or Office of the Dead (leaves 75r-91r), Commendaciones animarum (leaves 93r-102v), Psalterium de passione domini (leaves 103r-107v), and Psalterium beati Iheronimi (108r-116v).

• The Current Intelligence.

London [England]: Printed by J. Macock, 1666-

Folger Call Number: F265890

An item from the recently acquired the Obermayer Collection which consists of British and American newspaper articles about Jews from 1665-1800.

• Difficiliora quaedam scriptura loca varie exposita [ca. 1650].

Folger Call Number: 168150

This manuscript is 188 pages written in a neat spidery hand in English and later with insertions in Hebrew bound in contemporary calf skin with the first board detached. The writer has taken examples from 100 verses in various Old Testament books and has written his observations in both English and Latin with insertions in Hebrew. The writer appears to have been working with access to primary Hebrew texts. Following the Latin title the writer has set out as preliminaries, “The rules for ye understand the many places of Scripture, ye first of ye Hebrewes.” At the top right-hand corner of the page an inscription (owner’s name?) has been obliterated with ink.

• Elizabethan conceit [manuscript], 1602/3 March 8.

Folger Call Number: V.b.319

Images available in LUNA: V.b.319

This manuscript was folded into 15 rectangles and so cut as to reveal, when unfolded section by section, 4 painted figures, each with two fold-over flaps portraying alternate heads. A different verse accompanies each group and each figure. The 4 groups represent: 1) The judgment of Paris, with Paris kneeling before Juno, Pallas Minerva, and Venus; 2) ‘Three lovers true’ that committed suicide, with Dido, Pyramus, and Thisbe; 3) ‘Three gallant wights’ from the Bible, with David, Judith and Joshua; 4) ‘Three creatures sweet and all divine’ triumphing over sin with the Woman Clothed with the Sun from Revelations 12:1, St. Michael the Archangel, and Queen Elizabeth with a line of music for tenor.

• Jessey, Henry, 1603-1663.

The Scripture kalendar in use by the Prophets and Apostles, and by our Lord Jesus Christ (with our Vulgar Almanack:): explaining the Accounts, Measures, Weights, Coyns, Customs, and Language of God’s ancient People and of Primitive Christians ... / by H.J.

London: Printed by James Cottrel, for Liuewel Chapman, at the crown in Popes-Head Alley, 1659.

Folger Call Number: 265167.2

This is one of the series of “scripture almanacs” that Henry Jessey issued in the 1650s and 1660s. They aimed to train the English to adopt Hebrew months and were generally advancing a millenarian agenda.

• Josephus, Flavius.

Flavii Josephi opera, in sermonem latinum iam olim conversa: nunc vero ad exemplaria Graeca denuo summa fide ... collata ac :... emendata ...; accessit rerum & verborum toto opere memorabilium locupletissimis index.

Basileae: Ex Off. Frobeniana, 1567.

Folger Call Number: 267880

This Latin version was first printed by the Frobens in 1544 and, following its success, a second revised edition – this one – appeared in 1567. This particular copy has an early binding stamped “The Lady Russell,” likely Elizabeth Cooke (1528-1609), who married John, Lord Russell in 1574. Lady Russell was a scholar and translator as well as a courtier to Elizabeth I. Like the queen, Lady Russell was at home in Latin and French.

• Levita, Elijah, 1468 or 9-1549.

Opusculum recens Hebraicum a doctissimo Hebraeo Eliia Leuita Germano grammatico elaboratum, cui titulum fecit [Tishbi], id est, Thisbites: in quo 712. uocum, qu[a]e sunt partim Hebraic[a]e, Chaldaicae, Arabic[a]e, Gr[a]ecae & Latinae, qu[a]e[que] in dictionarijs non facilè inueniuntur, & à rabbinis tamen Hebr[a]eoru[m], in scriptis suis passim usurpantur, origo, etymon, & uerus usus doctè ostenditur & explicatur / per Paulum Fagium, in gratiam studiosorum Linguae Sanctae Latinitate donatum ... [Tishbi. Latin & Hebrew]

Impressum Isnae in Algauia: [Paul Fagius], anno 1541.

Folger Call Number: 234- 745q

This item has Hebrew and Latin on facing pages.

• Mancinelli, Antonio, 1452-approximately 1505.

Per Ant. Mancinellum Elegantiae portus; Lau. Vallensis Lima.; Rhetoricen ad Here[n]nium esse Ciceronis; Rhetorices ad Here[n]nium co[m]mentariolus.

Impressum Venetiis: Per Io. Tacuinu[m] de Tridino, 1508 die xix Maii [19 May 1508]

Folger Call Number: PA8547.M46 E5 1508 Cage

Images available in LUNA: PA8547.M6 E5 1508 Cage

The Folger copy is bound in a vellum fragment from a Hebrew manuscript.

• Mercure historique et politique.

London [England]: printed, and are to be sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall, and by most booksellers, 1690-

Folger Call Number: 267754

A second item from the newly acquired the Obermayer Collection, which consists of British and American newspaper articles about Jews from 1665-1800.

• Oxford Gazette.

[London, England]: Oxon, printed by Leonard Litchfield, and re-printed at London, for the use of some merchants and gentlemen, who desired them, [1665-1666]

Folger Call Number: F267742

A third item from the newly acquired Obermayer Collection, which consists of British and American newspaper articles about Jews from 1665-1800.

• Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.

Mr. VVilliam Shakespeares comedies, histories, and tragedies.: Published according to the true originall copies.

London: Printed by Tho. Cotes, for Iohn Smethwick, and are to be sold at his shop in Saint Dunstans Church-yard, 1632.

Folger Call Number: STC 22274 Fo.2 no.07

Images available in Luna: STC 22274 Fo.2 no.07

This second folio copy of Shakespeare’s works bears (on t.p.) the certificate of a censor for the Inquisition (“Opus auctoritate Sancti officij permissum et expurgatum eadem auctoritate per Guilielmum Sanchæum e Socte Jesu”) and marks of censorship. Passages are obliterated in The Tempest (A1 recto and A5 recto), Much Ado About Nothing (K3 recto and K6 verso), Love’s Labour’s Lost (L5 recto and verso, L6 recto, M2 recto, and M3 recto), Merchant of Venice (P2 recto), As You Like It (R3 :verso), All’s Well That Ends Well (V4 verso), King John (a5 recto and verso and b5 recto), Henry IV, Part I (e4 verso), Henry VI, Part I (l6 recto), Henry VI, Part 2 (o1 recto and o2 recto), Henry VIII (x2 verso, x4 recto, x5 recto, y3 recto, y5 verso, and y6 recto and verso), Troilus and Cressida (2b4 recto), Hamlet (2q4 recto), and King Lear (2s6 verso). Furthermore, some plays are designated “good” in an 18th-century hand in their caption: The Merry Wives of Windsor (D2 recto), The Comedy of Errors (H1 recto), Much Ado About Nothing (I3 recto), and Merchant of Venice (04 recto) (and Cymbeline is designated “rare” (3b1 :recto)).

• Susio, Giovanni Battista, fl. 1555.

Libro del conoscere la pestilenza di m. Gio. Battista Susio: doue si mostra, che in Mantoua non è stato male di simil sorte l’anno :MDLXXV nè s’è ragioneuolmente potuto predire, che ui debba essere la seguente primauera.

In Mantoua: Appresso Giacomo Ruffinello, MDLXXVI [1576].

Folger Call Number: 186- 916q

Images available in LUNA: 186- 916q

The Folger copy is bound in a vellum fragment from a Hebrew manuscript.

• Trevilian, Thomas, b. ca. 1548.

[Miscellany]

Washington, D.C.: Folger Shakespeare Library; Seattle: Distributed by University of Washington Press, 2007.

Folger Call Number: V.b.232

Images available in LUNA: V.b.232

Contents cover a variety of practical, religious, and moralistic subjects of the period, as well as ancient proverbial wisdom, mostly copied or adapted from printed sources. Printed sources include: the Geneva Bible, almanacs, chronicles, husbandry manuals, commonplace books, pattern books, sets of prints imported from Antwerp, and English broadside ballads and woodcuts (for a full list of sources see Trevelyon’s sources in facsimile introduction, p. 16-21).

• Wakefield, Robert (fl. 1524-1532).

Roberti VVakfeldi sacrarum literarum professoris eximij Regijq[ue] sacellani syntagma de hebr[a]eorum codicu[m] incorruptione. Item eiusdem Oratio Oxonij habita, vnacum quibusdam alijs lectu ac annotatu non indignis. [Syntagma de hebræorum codicum incorruptione.]

[London?: Wynkyn de Worde, 1530?]

Folger Call Number: STC 24946

This was the first book printed in England with Hebrew and Arabic characters. It is one of only two copies available in the United States.