DE POMIS, DAVID.
Tzemach David / Dittionario Novo Hebraico.

Tzemach David / Dittionario Novo Hebraico.

FIRST EDITION. Arms of Pope Sixtus V on f. 2r and of the De Pomis (“Min Hatapuchim”) Family on f. 5v. (Yaari, Hebrew Printers Marks, no. 41). ff. 5, (1), ff. 5-62, 238. Lightly stained and dampwrinkled. Later mottled calf with central gilt lozenges on covers, rebacked and recased. Folio. Vinograd, Venice 717.

Giovanni di Gara, Venice: 1586-7.

Celebrated Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin and Italian dictionary presenting definitions from Kimchi’s Shorashim, Levita’s Tishbi, and Nathan ben Yechiel’s Aruch; also providing numerous historical and scientific observations and discourses. Trained as a medical doctor, David de Pomis’s expositions of Biblical and Talmudic terms contain a good deal of interesting medieval scientific lore.
     The introduction, containing a short autobiography by the author, also recounts the remarkable history of the ancient de Pomis family, brought in chains to Italy from the Land of Israel by Emperor Titus following his siege and destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 C.E.
     The work is dedicated to Pope Sextius V, in gratitude for the restoration of the concession permitting Jewish physicians to attend to Christian patients for the years 1585-90. See C. Roth, The Jews in the Renaissance (1950) pp. 223-2.