Note 465 — Chapter III · THE OLD AUTHORS.

For Dante, see Wegele, Dante, 2nd ed. p. 268, and Lasinio, Dante e le Lingue semitiche in the Rivista Orientale (Flor. 1867-8). On Poggio, Opera, p. 297; Lion. Bruni, Epist. lib. ix. 12, comp. Gregorovius, vii. 555, and Shepherd-Tonelli, Vita di Poggio, i. 65. The letter of Poggio to Niccoli, in which he treats of Hebrew, has been lately published in French and Latin under the title, Les Bains de Bade par Pogge, by Antony Méray, Paris, 1876. Poggio desired to know on what principles Jerome translated the Bible, while Bruni maintained that, now that Jerome’s translation was in existence, distrust was shown to it by learning Hebrew. For Manetti as a collector of Hebrew MSS. see Steinschneider, in the work quoted below. In the library at Urbino there were in all sixty-one Hebrew manuscripts. Among them a Bible ‘opus mirabile et integrum, cum glossis mirabiliter scriptus in modo avium, arborum et animalium in maximo volumine, ut vix a tribus hominibus feratur.’ These, as appears from Assemanni’s list, are now mostly in the Vatican. On the first printing in Hebrew, see Steinschneider and Cassel, Jud. Typographic in Esch. u. Gruber, Realencyclop. sect. ii. bd. 28, p. 34, and Catal. Bodl. by Steinschneider, 1852-60, pp. 2821-2866. It is characteristic that of the two first printers one belonged to Mantua, the other to Reggio in Calabria, so that the printing of Hebrew books began almost contemporaneously at the two extremities of Italy. In Mantua the printer was a Jewish physician, who was helped by his wife. It may be mentioned as a curiosity that in the Hypnerotomachia of Polifilo, written 1467, printed 1499, fol. 68 a, there is a short passage in Hebrew; otherwise no Hebrew occurs in the Aldine editions before 1501. The Hebrew scholars in Italy are given by De Gubernatis (p. 80), but authorities are not quoted for them singly. (Marco Lippomanno is omitted; comp. Steinschneider in the book given below.) Paolo de Canale is mentioned as a learned Hebraist by Pier. Valerian. De Infel. Literat. ed. Mencken, p. 296; in 1488 Professor in Bologna, Mag. Vicentius; comp. Costituzione, discipline e riforme dell’antico studio Bolognese. Memoria del Prof. Luciano Scarabelli, Piacenza, 1876; in 1514 Professor in Rome, Agarius Guidacerius, acc. to Gregorovius, viii. 292, and the passages there quoted. On Guid. see Steinschneider, Bibliogr. Handbuch, Leipzig, 1859, pp. 56, 157-161.