Johannes Reuchlin – "Rudiments of Hebrew" – Pforzheim, 1506 / "On the Art of Kabbalah" – Haguenau, 1517 – First Editions

Johannes Reuchlin – "Rudiments of Hebrew" – Pforzheim, 1506 / "On the Art of Kabbalah" – Haguenau, 1517 – First Editions

First editions of two of the important works of the famous humanist and Hebraist Johannes Reuchlin, bound together:
1. De rudimentis Hebraicis liber primus[-tertius] (Rudiments of Hebrew, Book 1-3), by Johannes Reuchlin. Pforzheim (Germany): Thomas Anshelm, 1506 (printing details from colophon). First edition. Latin, with some Hebrew and Greek.
Johannes Reuchlin's pioneering and groundbreaking work, Rudiments of Hebrew – a Hebrew dictionary and grammar book, the first of its kind printed in Ashkenazic lands for Christian scholars. This book, based on Radak's Sefer HaShorashim, was known to have high impact on the development of the scientific study of the Bible and Jewish texts and study of the Hebrew language by Christians in the Renaissance period. Although the work is written in Latin, the leaves are arranged from right to left.
A large woodcut showing Reuchlin's coat of arms on the penultimate leaf; the printer's emblem appears on the other side of the leaf. At the beginning of the book are six pages in handwriting (replacing missing pages); many glosses and notations in Latin and Hebrew on the margins of most of the leaves.

2. De arte cabalistica ["On the Art of Kabbalah"], by Johannes Reuchlin. Haguenau: Thomas Anshelm, 1517 (printing details from colophon). First edition. Latin, with some Hebrew and Greek.
First edition of the seminal work of Christian Kabbalah. The title page features a large woodcut of Reuchlin's coat of arms.
The work, dedicated to Pope Leo X, is written as a three-way conversation between the Jewish Kabbalist Simeon son of Elazar (a fictitious character whose name is meant to be reminiscent of R. Shimon bar Yochai), a Spanish Muslim and a Pythagorean philosopher. In the spirit of the Renaissance, in his book Reuchlin strives to return to "the basics" as he perceives them, namely Jewish Kabbalah and Pythagorean philosophy, whose origins he traces back to Moses. He then takes these "basics" and interweaves them into Christian theology.
This book does not have a missionary agenda and was not in fact aimed at Jews; rather, Reuchlin addresses his fellow Christians, attempting to familiarize them with the sources of their own religion and thus deepen their faith. The book's concept of "Kabbalah" does not mean only the mystical and esoteric, but rather Jewish sources in general; the approach adopted in the book derives broadly and indiscriminately from extra-Biblical Jewish traditions, in the belief that the Christian faith would be incomplete without properly addressing these realms of Jewish thought, namely the Oral Torah (the Talmud and midrashic literature) and esoteric material (the Kabbalah, the "Zohar", the writings of R. Yehuda HeHasid, R. Abraham Abulafia, R. Joseph Gikatilla, and others(. This concept is founded on the belief that, like the Bible itself, all of the above were delivered to Moses at Mt. Sinai.

Johannes Reuchlin (1455-1522), German philosopher and humanist in the Renaissance period, and one of the founders of modern Hebraism. Propounded a tolerant stance toward the Jews, invested much of his energies in enriching his fellow Christians with the wisdom of Jewish sacred writings and Greek philosophy, and in teaching them the Hebrew and Greek languages. Studied Hebrew under Jakob son of Jehiel Loans and under Rabbi Ovadia son of Jacob Sforno. Continued with advanced studies in Kabbalah in Italy, and was influenced by the writings of Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494). Reuchlin was considered to be among the fathers of the Reformation, even though he personally placed himself in opposition to that movement and remained steadfast in his loyalty to the Vatican throughout his life.
In the famous debate that erupted between him and the Jewish apostate Johannes Pfefferkorn, Reuchlin emphatically denounced the burning of the Talmud. Consequently, and because of his devoted study and teaching of Jewish religious texts, he found himself targeted by Church institutions. His work "Augenspiegel" ("Eyeglasses") was banned and condemned in a decree issued by Pope Leo X in 1520.

Two works bound together. [1], 261, [1], 262-374, 387-542, 545-589, [1], 589-616, 616-620, [5] pages. 12 pages are missing (pages 375-386; at the beginning of the book the pages 376-381 are filled in in handwriting; they were apparently filled in in the year 1526); [4], LXXIX, [1] leaves (some misfoliation).

Reference and exhibition:
1. The Kabbalah of Johannes Reuchlin and its Historical Significance, by Joseph Dan, in: From Rome to Jerusalem: Joseph Baruch Sermoneta Memorial Volume – Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought, vol. XIV. Jerusalem, 1998, pp. 455-485 (Hebrew).
2. Glaubensfragen: Chatrooms auf dem Weg in die Neuzeit, by Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek. Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016.
Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, NHB.173 / NHB.174.
These works are documented on the Center for Jewish Art (CJA) website, item nos. 40611 / 40612.