Sefer ha-Shorashim (Book of Roots), David Kimhi, Printed by Azriel ben Joseph Ashkenazi Gunzenhauser, Naples: 1490

Offenberg, Census, 105; Iakerson, JTS 53 ; Goff Heb 39; Frank Ephraim Talmage, David Kimhi, the Man and the Commentaries. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1975.

Rabbi David Kimhi (1160?-1135?), also known by the acronym RaDaK, was the most prominent grammarian of the Hebrew language in the medieval period, surpassing all others in simplicity, comprehensiveness, and methodical presentation of the subject matter.  Kimhi was born in Provence after his father fled the Almohade persecutions in Spain. Both his father and brother were accomplished grammarians in their own right and Kimhi's own philological writings would owe a great deal to their early influence.

This work was originally part of a longer grammatical treatise, called Mikhlol. The first section, Helek ha-Dikduk (grammar) retained the title Mikhlol, while the second section, Helek ha-Inyan (lexicon), would become known as Sefer ha-Shorashim, a glossary of Hebrew and Aramaic words. The title derives from the layout of the text, where the root letters of individual words are printed in large bold letters followed by philological explanations and biblical citations. It was due to the popularity of both Mikhlol and Sefer ha-Shorashim that most of the works of Kimhi's predecessors fell into disuse.  Circulating in manuscripts for more than three centuries after his death, Kimhi's philological writings became the primary grammatical text for the study of Hebrew and biblical vocabulary for centuries to come.

With the advent of printing, Sefer ha-Shorashim was brought to press three times during the fifteenth century alone, first in Rome, and twice in Naples. As a result, Kimhi's work became readily accessible to a much broader constituency than he could have imagined and Sefer ha-Shorashim became the most-used reference tool for the study of biblical vocabulary through the 15th and 16th centuries for Jews and Christians alike.