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Bidding Information
Lot #    21760
Auction End Date    10/7/2008 12:09:00 PM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Grammatica
Author    [First Ed. - Reform] Samuel Romanelli
City    Trieste
Publisher    Stamperia Governiale
Publication Date    1799
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description		    First edition. [4], 209, [1] pp., 164:109 mm., nice margins, usual light age and damp staining. A very good copy bound in modern cloth boards.
          
Detailed
Description		    Hebrew grammar by Samuel Aaron Romanelli (1757–1817), Italian Hebrew poet and traveler. Born in Mantua, he acquired a knowledge of ten languages including English, French, and Spanish. He began his journeys through Europe at an early age. By his late 20s he reached London where he wrote a Hebrew translation of Pope's Essay on Man, Massah al ha-Adam, and a lament on the death of Moses Mendelssohn (1786). On his way back to Italy in 1787, he decided to tour Morocco. While there he took up employment wherever he could find it and at the same time wrote his travelogue, Massa ba-Arav (Berlin, 1792; repr. with introd. by H. Schirmann in Romanelli, Ketavim Nivharim, 1968; Eng. trans. by Schiller-Szinessy Romanelli's Travels in Morocco, 1887). It is for this attractive description of Jewish life in Morocco written in a biblical Hebrew style that he is best known. In 1790 he left for Europe where he eventually settled in Germany. There he befriended the principal "me'assefim", e.g., I. Euchel and D. Friedlaender. While there he composed an allegorical play in three acts, Ha-Kolot Yehdalun (Berlin, 1791), for the marriage of one of the Jaffe Itzig family. The same year he published his philosophical poem Ru'ah Nakhon, concerning the existence of the soul and God. In 1793 he worked as a proofreader in Vienna, where he published a play for the marriage of Charlotte Arnstein, Alot ha-Minhah, which appeared with an Italian translation. After the French conquest of northern Italy, Romanelli returned to his homeland and settled in Mantua in 1807. The same year he published Zimrat Arizim, Raccolta di inni ed odi, Italian translations of poems and prayers composed by members of the Sanhedrin in Napoleon's honor. In 1808 he published Mahazeh Shaddai... Illusione felice ossia visione sentimentale, a metaphysical poem with an Italian translation (Turin, 1808). His latter years he spent in wandering through northern Italy, finally settling in Casale Monferrato where he died. Many of his works are still in manuscript including his Hebrew translation of the Italian playwright Metastasio's play Temistocle under the title Talmon.
          
Reference
Description		    EJ
        
Associated Images
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Listing Classification
Period
  
18th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Italy:    Checked
  
Subject
Reform:    Checked
Other:    Grammar
  
Characteristic
First Editions:    Checked
Language:    Italian, Hebrew
  
Manuscript Type
  
Kind of Judaica