Beschreibung:

REUCHLIN, Johannes (1455-1522). De Arte Cabalistica . Hagenau: Thomas Anshelm March 1517. Collation: A 6 -N 6 , O 8 . In Latin, interspersed with Hebrew and Greek. Title with large woodcut of Reuchlin's coat of arms. (Skilful repair to upper margin of last ten leaves, not affecting text.) Bound with: REUCHLIN. Liber de Verbo Mirifico. Tubingen: Thomas Anshelm August 1514. Collation: a 6 -i 6 , k 8 , including final printer's blank. (Occasional marginal pencil marks.) 2 works in 1 volume, 2° (272 x 182mm.). Old limp vellum (back cover neatly repaired, lacking ties). A FINE COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION OF REUCHLIN'S MOST IMPORTANT WORK, bound with the second edition of his first cabbalistic text, a dialogue on the Hebrew name of Jesus. Reuchlin was inspired to study the Cabbalah by his meeting with Pico della Mirandola in Florence in 1490, and began to learn Hebrew in 1493. His De Arte Cabalistica is dedicated to Pope Leo X, who had halted the legal proceedings begun by the Cologne Dominicans against Reuchlin, for his opposition to the suppression of all Hebrew books. The work made Reuchlin the best-known Christian exponent of the Cabbalah and stimulated interest in the study of oriental languages. This copy of the Liber de Verbo Mirifico bears an early inscription beneath the colophon: "Carnefice insignii" ("the sign of the executioner or butcher"). Caillet III, p.387, 9333; Bibliotheca Walleriana 20171-20172.