Habes hoc in libro candide lector Hebraicas institutiones, by Santes Pagnino. Lyon: Antoniu du Ry, 1526. Latin and Hebrew. First edition.

Hebrew grammar book by the Hebraist Santes Pagnino. The title page is printed in red and black, and decorated with a border featuring angels, mermaids, and small illustrations of scholars. Decorated initial words (in three sizes, spanning two lines, four lines, and seven lines; an illustrated portrait of the author appears at the beginning of the volume.

Santes Pagnino (Sante Pagnini, 1470-1536) was an Italian Hebraist and scholar, known for his Latin translation of the Bible, the second Latin translation which appeared approximately a thousand years after the first translation, known as the Vulgate.

Pagnino was born in Lucca, Tuscany, and at the age of 16, he joined the Convento di San Domenico, where he became a disciple of Girolamo Savonarola. During this period, he began to diligently study ancient languages – Greek, Latin and Arabic, but most notably Hebrew, which he continued to study throughout his life (his first Hebrew teacher was likely the Spanish convert Clemente Abramo).

His greatest work – a literal translation of the Bible into Latin from the original Hebrew – was written over twenty-five years and finally published in Lyon in 1528. The translation had a profound impact on the spread of Hebrew among European scholars and was used by Sebastian Münster in creating his own translation of the Bible (Pagnino is mentioned in the introduction to Münster's translation).​

The present grammar book was published some two years before the appearance of his Bible translation (by the same printer) and was the first of Pagnino's works to be printed in Hebrew letters.​

[16], 421 [i.e. 411], [1] pages. 23.5 cm. Good condition. Stains and minor blemishes. Several handwritten notes and inscriptions. Tear to margin of one page. Fine leather binding, with gilt embossing. Bookplate.