Grammatica hebraica et chaldaica

The rare first edition of the two volumes published respectively in 1724 and 1726. It is illustrated with 2 head-piece vignettes, 8 pages of musical scores, a cabalistic tree printed separately, the Samaritan Alphabet, 2 plates of coins and 2 figures also printed separately.

Copy with arms stamped on the covers and within each compartment from the library of the Abbey of Saint-Victor. The Abbey of Saint-Victor was one of the oldest abbeys in Paris (on the site of the University of Jussieu and the Jardin des Plantes) and one of the great intellectual centers of the medieval West; its rich library was opened to the public in the 18th century with the addition of new buildings. The abbey was destroyed during the Revolution and most of its collections joined the Bibliothèque nationale.

Contemporary bindings in full glazed blonde calf. Raised band spines decorated. Red morocco title labels, volume labels rubbed, as well as the library label at the foot. Headcap of volume I worn with upper joint cracked at head. A loss at the head of volume II; upper joint exposed with a loss at foot. Some corners slightly bumped. Despite the defects, a very handsome copy, with fine tooling and beautiful arms.

Study by Dom Guarin, Benedictine, who exhorts in his preface the religious to knowledge of Holy Scripture in order to perfectly understand its messages. The first volume contains Hebrew grammar and the first part of syntax, the second studies the figurative syntax of Hebrew (true rhetoric of holy writing). An ample dissertation follows on various subjects concerning the Hebrews, their poetry, accents, arithmetic, their calendar; one finds there moreover treatises on the cabala and the Talmud and several tables of Chaldean and Hebrew words. Guarin continued his studies on this language by publishing a dictionary of the Hebrew and Chaldean language in 1747, but his death did not allow him to complete this work which was continued by other scholars.