RECENSIONS
947
RECENSIONS
Iishing corrected editions of the Holy Scriptures, though they seldom gave an account of the materials they used. The history of the printed text is important as showing the manner in which our present copies of the Hebrew Uible were edited, and the sources available for obtain- ing the exact words of the original. In order to do this we must examine the different editions according to the text which they contain; we must know the differ- ent degrees of relationship in which the editions stand to each other; in a word, we must have the genealogy of the present editions.
Before entering upon the history of the printed text, we must mention, first, the editions of different parts of the Old Test, which formed the basis of later editions. The first part of the Hebrew Scriptures which was pub- lished is —
(I.) B^bnr, i. e. Psalterium Hebraicum cum Commenta- ry Kimchii ('237 [i. e. A.D. 1477], 4to, or sm. fob, sine loco). This very rare edition is printed on 149 folios, each page containing forty lines, but without divisiou of verses, in majuscular and minuscular letters. Only the first four psalms have the vowel-points, and these but clumsily ex- pressed. Each verse is accompanied by Kimchi's com- mentary. The pages and psalms are not numbered. The Soph Pasuk (i. e. :) is often omitted, especially when two verses stand by each other. For ITi"P, often an empty space is left, sometimes omitted; in the space we often find an inverted he, i_!> or an inverted vav, <,, in the word iTHT1; often the word is expressed by a sign of abbrevi- ation, ", which generally occurs in the commentary. In Psa. cxix, 1 we find IT1!!1, i. e. a yod for a vav. The let-
ters 2 and 3, ~j and *7, 1 and
and T, 3 and 3 ; 1" and 113 can hardly be distinguished from each other. The text is far from being correct, as a few examples will show. Thus, in Psa. i, 3 we read i~P^2, in Van der Hooght, ^"S
i,5 " dwv-13 " sipina
ii, 1
p-n
iv, 1
p^n
manias " i^rny
TH3 Tiata " -mb Tiata
It is divided into five books, as can be seen from super- scriptions to Psa. xli, Ixxii, lxxxix, and cvi. As to the commentary, it is very valuable, because it contains all the anti-Christian passages of Kimchi, which are not found in later editions. At the end two epigraphs are printed, one in rhyme, the other in prose. See ou this edition, Eichhorn, Repertorium, vi, 134 sq. ; De Rossi, A n- nales Hebrceo-typographici, p. 14; and De Hebraicir '/. '/«<- graphics Origine cic Primitiis, etc., p. 13 ; Kenuicott, Dins. Gen. inV.T. p. 91.
(ii.) Ven BJTT'ai biipsis bi:nn as irsm
3 50*1 Sf",i1P12, i. e. Pentateuchus Ilebraicus cum T'unctis et cum Paraphrasi Chaldaica et Commentario Rabbi Salo- monis Jarchi (Bononiie, 242 [i. e. A.D. 1482], fob). This copy is printed on 21S parchment leaves. Above and be- low the Hebrew Rashi's commentary is given, while the Chaldee is printed on the side of the Hebrew. The text is very correct, and when compared with Van der Hooght's, the latter seems to be a reprint, of this Pentateuch. The harmony of this Pentateuch with that found in Van der Hooght's edition is of the utmost importance for the printed text. In the first place, it corroborates the fact that, prior to the year 1520, the beginning had already been made to print the Hebrew text according to recent MSS. and the Masorah ; in the second place, we must ad- mit that all variations which are found in the Pentateuch printed at Soncino in 14SS, and which is a reprint of our edition, are nothing but negligences of the printer and cor- rector, in so far as these variations are not supported by the Masorah, and hence cannot be regarded as a testimo- ny against the Masoretic text. In the third place, we see that all MSS. and editions which were prepared by Jews are of the utmost correctness, and that the variations are nothing but an oversight of either the copyist or printer. At the end is a very lengthy epigraph in Hebrew, to give which in an English translation space forbids. See Eich- horn, Repertorium,\, 92 sq., where the variations of this Pentateuch from Van der Hooght's text are given.
(III.) liuth, Ecelesiastes, Canticum Cantieorum, Threni cum Comm. Jarchi, et Esther cum Comm. Aben-Ezrre (sine anno et loco [but probably Bononiie, 1482], fob). See De Rossi, De IgniitisXonnuUisAntiquissiniisHebr.TextusEdi- tionibus (Erlangen, 17S2).
(IV.) Prophetce Priorcs ac Postcriores cum Comm. Kim-
chii (Soncino, 1485-SG, 2 vols. fob). On this, see Eichhorn, Reperturium, viii, 51 sq.
(V.) Qitinque Megilloth et Psalterium (Soncini et Casali, 14S6).
(VI.) Quatuor Sacra Vohimina, sen liuth, Canticvm, Threni et Ecelesiastes (ibid. I486), with vowel-points, but with no accents.
(VII.) Hagiographa, with different commentaries (Nea- poli,14S7).
(VIII.) Bihlia Uehraica Intenra cum PnneUa et Aecentihus (Soncini, 248 [i.e.A.D. 148S],foI.). This istheflrst complete Hebrew Bible, with vowel-points and accents. It is very rare; only nine copies are known to be extant, viz. one at ExeterColIesie, Oxford ; two at Rome, two at Florence, two at Parma, one at Vienna, and one in the Baden-Dur- lach Library. According to Brims (Dissertat. General, in V. Test. p. 442 sq.), the text is printed neither from an- cient nor good MSS., but is full of blunders; and Kenui- cott asserts that it contains more than 12,000 variations ("qua; una editio ab exemplaribus hodiernis discrepat in locis plus quam 12,000"). How carelessly the printing was executed may be seen from the fact that ver. 10 of Psa. lxxiv was interpolated after ver. 12 of Psa. lxxxix.