Musical Sympathy and Occult Knowledge
Read MoreInscription in Hebrew on rear flyleaf of Reuchlin's De accentibus et orthographia linguae Hebraicae (c. seventeenth-century). The presence of grammatical errors suggests that the inscription was entered by a non-jewish scholar who was perhaps self-taught in Hebrew. (See the erroneous use of the pronoun 'him' rather than 'her').
'Good luck
My daughter Esther was born to me in the land of England (b'eretz Anglia) on Wednesday (Yom Daled) after midnight (Layla) on the 14th day of the month (chodesh) of December. May God (hashem) bring him [i.e. her] up to the Torah, the chuppah and good works (l'ma atzim tovim). Amen.
My son Hieronymus was born to me on Monday (yom sheni)'.
Many thanks to David Hulbert for the translation.
Author: Johann Reuchlin
Title: De accentibus et orthographia linguae Hebraicae [On the accentuation and spelling of Hebrew] (Haguenau, 1618)
Shelfmark: K.14.13
Provenance: Formerly owned by N. Cartwright
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