Mario di Calasio. Concordantiae sacrorum bibliorum hebraicorum. Rome: Apud Stephanum Paulinium, 1621–[1622]

4 volumes, folio (15 ¾ x 10 ½ in.; 400 x 267 mm).  Original pagination by columns; final leaf in vol. 4 lacking all but fragment (pasted on to penultimate leaf), text blocks shaken, some worming, title-page of vol. 4 remounted, title-pages have each had 5 images of crosses scratched off or excised. Nineteenth-century red morocco paneled gilt, Hebrew name of owner and initials N.S. stamped on each volume, gilt edges; several volumes repaired, rubbed with losses.

Nissim Samama (monogrammed gilt supralibros; see also previous lot)

Shimeon Brisman, A History and Guide to Judaic Dictionaries and Concordances (Hoboken, 2000)

The first Hebrew concordance was the work of Isaac Nathan, completed in 1448 and printed in Venice in 1523.  The improved edition of Nathan's concordance was published in Rome in 1621 and 1622 in four volumes by Mario di Calasio, a Franciscan monk.  Both Nathan and Calasio arranged the words according to the Hebrew roots with the derivatives following simply according to the order in which they occur in the Hebrew Bible.

Mario di Calasio (1550–1620) devoted himself to the study of Hebrew with such success that he was called to Rome by Pope Paul V and given a post teaching Hebrew in several Franciscan convents. Eventually, Calasio became the Pope's personal confessor and was accorded all the titles and privileges generally accorded to doctors of theology. Calasio's reputation as a scholar in the Semitic languages rests mainly upon his Concordantiae sacrorum bibliorum hebraicorum, which was published at Rome two years after his death. Another, though inferior, edition of the same work appeared at London in 1747.  Calasio was reported to have been chanting the Psalms of David in Hebrew as he lay on his deathbed.