Memorie storiche sugli studj e sulle produzioni del dottore G. Bernardo De-Rossi Prof. di ling. orient. da lui distese

8vo (223x155 mm). 112 pp. Contemporary marbled cardboards, label with inked title on spine (worn). Slightly loose, a good copy printed on thick paper.
First edition of this bio-bibliographical work that De Rossi wrote about himself in response to requests for biographical information from his fellow citizens. The Memorie is thus the primary source for reconstructing De Rossi's life. However, they reveal little about his attitude toward the events of his time from political and ecclesiastical perspectives. De Rossi lived in close contact with men like Paciaudi, who openly supported jurisdictionalism. He also corresponded frequently with men like Amaduzzi, who were considered Jansenists. However, the ‘Memoirs' is silent on all of this, and nothing can be learned from the few published letters. Instead, the book denounces the discomforts of old age and expresses the intention to no longer undertake new works and to leave public employment at the university. The ‘Memoirs' focuses primarly on the genesis of the author's works, and a list of his published and unpublished works is included at the end.
The great Italian Christian Hebraist Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi was born in Castelnuovo in 1742. He studied in Ivrea and Turin. In 1769, he was appointed professor of Oriental languages at the University of Parma, where he spent the rest of his life. His inaugural lecture on the causes of the neglect of Hebrew study was published in 1769 at Turin. De Rossi devoted himself to three chief lines of investigation -typographical, bibliographical, and text-critical. Influenced by the example of Kennicott, he determined on the collection of the variant readings of the Old Testament, and for that purpose collected a large number of manuscripts and old prints. In order to determine their bibliographical position he undertook a critical study of the annals of Hebrew typography, beginning with a special preliminary disquisition in 1776, and dealing with the presses of Ferrara (Parma, 1780), Sabbionetta (Erlangen, 1783), and, later, Cremona (Parma, 1808), as preparatory to his two great works, Annales Hebraeo-Typographici (Parma, 1795) and Annales Hebraeo-Typographici ab 1501 ad 1540 (Parma, 1799). This formed the foundation of his serious study of the early history of Hebrew printing. In connection with this work he drew up a Dizionario storico degli Autori Ebrei e delle loro opere (Parma, 1802; German translation by Hamberger, Leipsic, 1839), in which he summed up in alphabetical order the bibliographical notices contained in Wolf, and, among other things, fixed the year of Rashi's birth; and he also published a catalogue of his own manuscripts (1803) and books (1812). All these studies were in a measure preparatory and subsidiary to his Variae Lectiones Veteris Testamenti (Parma, 1784-88), still the most complete collection of variants of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. In order to compile it he visited all the chief libraries of Italy, and through its compilation he obtained the knighthood of St. George at the court of Parma and seductive offers from Pavia, Madrid, and Rome. He was also interested in the polemics of Judaism and Christianity, and wrote on this subject his Della vana aspettazione degli Ebrei del loro Re Messia (Parma, 1773), which he defended in a pamphlet two years later; and he further published a list of antichristian writers, Bibliotheca Judaica Antichristiana (Parma, 1800). A select Hebrew lexicon, in which he utilized Parhon's work (Parma, 1805), and an introduction to Hebrew (ib. 1815) conclude the list of those of his works which are of special Jewish interest. He died in Parma in 1831 (cf. Jewish Encyclopedia online; see also FF. Parente, De Rossi, Giovanni Bernardo, in: “Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani”, vol. 39, 1991, s.v.).
Brooks, 1078; Italian Union Catalogue, IT\ICCU\RMRE\001577.