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Large format annotated bi-lingual Hebrew-Italian book of Psalms, versified by Giovan Battista Co. gazole and annotated in Italian by Abbot Giuseppe (Joseph) Venturi. The psalter covers Psalms. This volume, part II of a larger work, covers Psams 42 through 72. The full title of the work is Il salterio ebraico : versificato dal Giovambatista Co. Gazola / sulla italianizazione dell’abate Giuseppe Venturi... . The text is in four columns, reading from left to right, the unvocalized Hebrew text, Versificazione, Italizazione, and Annotazioni. On the final page is a Genealogia of da Thare padre di Abramo sino a DAVIDDE, showing the genealogy of the Patriarchs and their families.
Giovanni Giona Galileo Baptista (Battista) was a baptized Jew, professor of Hebrew, and librarian of the Vatican; born in Safed Oct. 28, 1588; died May 26, 1668. His Jewish name was Judah Jonah ben Isaac. He studied the Talmud and traveled as a rabbi through Italy and Poland; visited Amsterdam; and was finally elected dayyan in Hamburg. In 1625 he returned to Poland, and was converted to Christianity in Warsaw. Expelled from Poland, he came to Italy; was appointed professor of Hebrew, first in the University of Pisa, then in the Neophyte College of Rome; and later was one of the librarians of the Vatican. The most important of his numerous works are: (1) a sermon in Hebrew and Latin on the Messiah and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, Rome, 1653; (2) "Limmud ha-Meshiḥim" (Doctrines of Christianity), a Hebrew translation of the Italian catechism of Robert Bellarmin, 1658; (3) "Berit Hadashah," a Hebrew translation of the New Testament with a preface by Clement IX., to whom the translation was dedicated; (4) "Hebrew-Chaldaic Lexicon"; (5) a "Treatise on the Name of Jesus" (in manuscript); (6) "Hillufin Sheben Sheloshah Targumim," a collection of the differences in the three Targumim. This work was left unfinished; the manuscript is preserved in the Vatican Library. Venturi (Ventori) too was a baptized Jew.
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