The Rabbi and the English scholar

The Best-Loved Books (contd.)

Title page, from: David Kimhi, Sepher Mikhlol (Book of Completeness), ed. by Elias Levita, Venice: 1544

David Kimhi (1160-1235) was a learned Hebrew grammarian and biblical commentator—he also engaged in public debates with Christians. Kimhi’s widely-read grammar Sepher Mikhlol was much consulted by Christians and Jews for centuries. This printing of Kimhi’s grammar was edited by Elias Levita (see ibn Tibbon's Physica Hebraea, also edited by Levita).

The Hebrew dedication in Kimhi’s Sepher Mikhlol, a Christian Donor to Queens’ Library:

‘Florimaundum Periel Tsarphati gave this book to the Library which is in the Yeshivah of the Queen [i.e. Queens’ College]. In Cambridge, on the day of the first of Iyyar, Year of Our Lord 5595 [=1735] Periel.’