"Itiel HaKushi MeVenezia…" ["Ithiel the Cushite of Venice"], by Isaac Edward Salkinsohn, with preface by Peretz Smolenskin." Vienna: Spitzer & Holzwarth Jun., 1874. First Hebrew translation of the play "Othello" by William Shakespeare.

Isaac Salkinsohn's Hebrew translation of "Othello": The earliest Hebrew translation of a complete Shakespearean play. This translation was published in Vienna; it was commissioned by the Hebrew author and publicist Peretz Smolenskin. In the preface to the book, Smolenskin writes as follows: "Vengeance was visited upon the British; the latter had taken our Holy Scriptures and treated them as their own; they copied them, scattered them to all corners of the world as if they were their own. And we shall yet repay them in kind, insofar as we shall take those writings of theirs that are as dear in their eyes as the Holy Scriptures – the plays by Shakespeare – and bring them into the treasure trove of our Holy Tongue, and how sweet shall be this vengeance?! […].

Isaac Salkinsohn (1820-1883), Hebrew translator of the "Haskalah" (Jewish Enlightenment) period, a Jewish convert to Christianity and a Christian missionary, was also responsible for translating into Hebrew Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" (under the title "Ram and Yael"), John Milton's "Paradise Lost" (under the title "So He Drove Out the Man"), and other literary works.

XXXV, [1], 198, [2] pp. Bound in card binding with leather spine, with the original printed cover. Pages XIX-XXX are bound out of order. 19 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Tears to several leaves. Inked library stamps. Tears and blemishes to binding.