Detailed Description |
|
Parts I and II of Lexicon and thesaurus in two parts by Isaac Satanow for the purpose of instructing the Jewish people in the pure holy language from the German (Yiddish) in order to be able to understand the bible with the commentaries of Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and others. The title page is printed in both red and black, and has a sub-title, Hebraeisch-Deutsches Lexicon. There are rabbinical introductions, probably forged. Words are given in square letters followed by definitions in smaller type, with, as necessary, vocalization. In the margins are biblical references. At the bottom of the page are notes in Yiddish. The second part of the book was printed at a later date (Berlin 1783).
Isaac Satanow (1732–1804) was born in Satanov, Podolia, and settled in Berlin in 1771 or 1772, where he served as the director of Society for the Education of the Youth. Among the most prolific of the early Haskalah writers, he did not restrict himself to any particular literary field, but wrote in most of those genres used by the later Haskalah writers. Satanow demonstrated a wealth of knowledge of the Hebrew language, ranking as a model stylist throughout the Haskalah period. He ascribed several of his works to earlier writers, and consequently used fictitious names for the authors of the recommendations for his own books and of their forewords. He wrote a number of books of liturgy, Tefillah mi-Kol ha-Shanah al Pi Kelalei ha-Dikduk (1785), Haggadah shel Pesah (1785); and Selihot (1785); as well as Mishlei Asaf and Zemirot Asaf (4 vols., 1789–1802), collections of proverbs in imitation of the Book of Proverbs. (Satanow adopted the pseudonym Asaf from the acrostic for Itzik Satanow.) The work, attributed to the biblical Asaph son of Berechiah, is written in the style of Proverbs and Psalms. He may have been the first Hebrew writer who sought to break out of the strict framework of biblical style, although he himself was very adept in the biblical style called melizah. Hence he demanded that new words be coined; in Iggeret Beit Tefillah he complains that the vocabulary of biblical Hebrew had not preserved its great lexical range. |