Thursday, April 22, 2010

Who knows Hebrew and who doesn't?

This little blurb about Isaac Euchel's biography of Mendelssohn appears in Volume 7 of The Analytical Review, or History of Literature (December 1790):


Although I suppose its pointless addressing the editor of a centuries old periodical, perhaps he should have proofread a little before speaking of the "corruptions of the Rabbinical writings." תולדית רגד החכם משהבן מנחם , indeed. Here's the book, by the way.

Since the blurb references the German journal the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, here's a line from that journal (1792) which should be easy to understand even without knowing German:


This comes from a review of Euchel's edition of the Moreh Nevuchim with Salomon Maimon's commentary. If I understand correctly, the reviewer is impressed by the transliteration used: