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A: Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

The First Book of the Hebrew Bible Printed was Kimhi's Commentary on the Psalms

8/29/1477
The Library of Congress copy of Tehillim (1477) was heavily censored by Church authorities in Italy, with whole passages crossed out by the censor

The Library of Congress copy of Tehillim (1477) was heavily censored by Church authorities in Italy, with whole passages crossed out by the censor's pen. 

In Northern Italy, probably Bologna on August 29, 1477 Joseph and Nerija, Hayyim Mordecai and Hezekiah de Venturo issued Tehillim with the commentary of the medieval rabbi David Kimhi. This small Hebrew psalter was the first book of the Hebrew Bible to be printed in Hebrew. It is also considered one of the most beautiful of early Hebrew printed books.

Little of the publishing history of this work is definitely known. Neither the place or date or printers' names are given in the work. While the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue No. ib00525860 states the printers' names as above, the website of the Bodleian Library, OxfordOffsite Link identifies the printer as "The Printer of the Psalms in sixteens." The ISTC states the imprint date as 29 August 1477, while the Bodleian states that the book was "printed before 29 Aug. 1477" or "not after 1490" or it was printed in "Bologna? 1477-80?." 

 

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