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Letteris, Meir : THE HEBREW BIBLE

New York; J. Wiley, 1869

Original Cloth. 8vo. 1384 pages. 22 cm. First American edition. Singerman 2114. In Hebrew, with English title page, pagination, and section headings in English. 'Revised and carefully examined by Myer Levi Letteris. ' The Letteris Bible was frequently reissued by both Jewish and Christian publishers; it was published in a Yiddish version in 1912; the first edition was published in Vienna in 1852, based on the 1705 Bible of van der Hooght…. It is probably the most widely reproduced text of the Hebrew Bible in history, with many dozens of authorised reprints and many more pirated and unacknowledged ones. Compiled by Meir Halevi Letteris (1800? –1871) , an influential “Hebrew poet; editor and translator of poetry and dramatic works. Me’ir (Max) ha-Levi Letteris was born in Zólkiew, eastern Galicia, into a family of Hebrew publishers … When Letteris was 11 years old, he met Nahman Krochmal—a meeting that turned out to be significant. Krochmal became Letteris’s rabbi, mentor, and close friend, and when Krochmal’s Moreh nevukhe ha-zeman (Guide of the Perplexed of Our Time) was published (posthumously) , Letteris wrote his biography (1851) . Letteris’s translation from German into Hebrew of a speech by David Friedländer, and the production of a new edition of the publication Ha-Me’asef, brought him close to the world of maskilim in Germany, and the appearance of his own poetry collection, Divre shir (Collection of Poems) in 1822 established his reputation as a poet. In 1823, Letteris published the anthology Ha-Tsefirah, to which some of the leading maskilim of his generation contributed. In 1846, Letteris published his article 'Toldot ha-filosof Barukh Spinozah zikhrono li-verakhah' (Biography of the Philosopher Barukh Spinoza of Blessed Memory) . Unaware of the Jewish community’s sensitivity about Spinoza, Letteris was dragged, at great personal cost, into a tumultuous debate that caused his friends, even those who were more moderate maskilim, to draw away from him…. Only after his death in 1871 did critics judge him more positively, at which point even long-standing opponents such as Perets Smolenskin acknowledged his talent. Through his original and translated poetry, Letteris paved the way for romantic poetry in Hebrew literature. His collections of Hebrew verse (which include original poems as well as translations) are Divre shir, Ayelet ha-sha? Ar (Morning Star; 1824) , ‘Afrot zahav (Gold Ore; 1852) , and Tofes kinor ve-ugav (One Who Plays the Harp and Pipe; 1860) . Letteris wrote poems in German as well, and his publication of Sagen aus dem Orient (Legends of the Orient; 1847) earned him a gold medal from Emperor Franz Joseph. … He translated many European literary classics, lyrical poems, and plays, including works by Virgil, Lucian, Racine, Byron, Goethe, Schiller, and the Austrian Jewish poet Ludwig August Frankl. Additionally, he translated (from German) the satire Alexander the False Prophet by the Greek satirist Lucian (in Ha-Tsefirah; 1823) , thus contributing to the infusion of European satire into contemporary Hebrew. ” (YIVO Encyclopedia) . Bound in original black tooled calf, gilt lettered spine. Subjects: Bible. Old Testament. Hebrew. Letteris. 1869. OCLC lists 11 copies. Calf rubbed at extremities, otherwise fresh. Good + condition, a nice copy. (RAB-56-2), Rulon miller books 3/13

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