The Ferrara Bible was a 1553 publication of the Ladino version of the

Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Sephardi Jews Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefa ...

. It was paid for and made by Yom-Tob ben Levi Athias (the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

Marrano known before his return to Judaism as ''Alvaro de Vargas'',In a number of historical studies, it is stated that the Portuguese name of Yom-Tob Athias was Jerónimo de Vargas. Yet, as it demonstrated by Aron Leoni (''La nazione ebraica spagnola e portoghese di Ferrara (1492-1559)'', Florence, pp. 443, 1089) his actual given name was Alvaro, while Jerónimo de Vargas was his son and co-editor. as typographer) and Abraham ben Salomon Usque (the

Marrano ''Duarte Pinhel'', as translator), and was dedicated to Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara. Ercole's wife

Renée of France Renée of France (25 October 1510 – 12 June 1574), was Duchess of Ferrara from 31 October 1534 until 3 October 1559 by marriage to Ercole II d'Este, grandson of Pope Alexander VI. She was the younger surviving child of Louis XII of Fran ...

was a Protestant, daughter of Louis XII of France. This version is a revision of a translation which had long circulated among Spanish Jews. It is more formally entitled ''Biblia en Lengua Española Traducida Palabra por Palabra de la Verdad Hebrayca por Muy Excelentes Letrados, Vista y Examinada por el Oficio de la Inquisicion. Con Privilegio del Ylustrissimo Señor Duque de Ferrara.'' ("The Bible in the Spanish Language, Translated word for word from the true Hebrew by very excellent Literati, Viewed and Examined by the Office of the

Inquisition The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...

hough the Inquisition would not have passed such a work With the Privilege of the most Illustrious Lord Duke of Ferrara.) Two editions were printed, one dedicated to the duke, and one for the Jewish public dedicated to Doña Gracia Nasi.

Language

Its language follows closely the Hebrew syntax rather than that of everyday Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino), as per the norm for "vulgar" translations of the Scriptures. It is written entirely in the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and th ...

, albeit with various diacritics suitable for expressing Ladino phonetics. This distinguishes this translation from others from the same century, printed in

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...

entirely in

Hebrew script The Hebrew alphabet ( he, אָלֶף־בֵּית עִבְרִי, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is an abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew language and other Jewish ...

. Both were based on the previous Spanish oral tradition. The

tetragrammaton The Tetragrammaton (; ), or Tetragram, is the four-letter Hebrew theonym (transliterated as YHWH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left (in Hebrew), are ''yodh'', '' he'', '' waw'', and ...

is translated as ''A.'' (for Adonai). It was a basis for the 1569 translation of

Casiodoro de Reina Casiodoro de Reina or de Reyna ( 1520 – 15 March 1594) was a Spanish theologian who (perhaps with several others) translated the Bible into Spanish. Early life Reina was born about 1520 in Montemolín in the Province of Badajoz. Hermann D ...

as shown in the "Amonestacion al Lector" found before the biblical text written by the translator himself wherein he writes the following:

References

External links

Downloadable copy on Archive.orgScan at the Biblioteca Virtual de Polígrafos
{{Authority control 1553 books Early printed Bibles Judaeo-Spanish-language mass media Sephardi Jews topics Sephardi Jewish culture in Italy Jewish Italian history Jewish Portuguese history Jewish Spanish history Judaism in Italy Judaism in Portugal Judaism in Spain Bible translations into Spanish

Language

See also

References

Further reading

External links