MAḲRE DARDEḲE:

By: Richard Gottheil, Caspar Levias

Name given in the Middle Ages to Hebrew glossaries primarily intended for the use of students of the Bible; its literal meaning is "teacher of children." The first and most noteworthy work of this kind is the one published at Naples in 1488, the author of which is Perez Trévôt. The work gives every Hebrew vocable, accompanied by a translation into Italian and Arabic and a short explanation in Hebrew, at times quoting the French glosses occurring in the Bible commentary of Rashi and in the works of R. David Ḳimḥi. The work was composed in 1395, in southern Italy, with the purpose of promoting a better understanding of the Scriptures among the Italian Jews (who had neglected Biblical for Talmudic studies), in order to enable them to answer successfully Christian and Moslem attacks on Judaism. This work is of importance for the fourteenth-century Italian it contains. Similar works, based on this, were afterward produced in other countries, French, German, or Spanish being substituted for the original Italian and Arabic. The Italian glosses of the "Maḳre Dardeḳe" were published separately by M. Schwab in "R. E. J." (xvi. 253 et seq.).

G. C. L.