Basila, Raphael Chajim

Basila, Raphael Chajim son of the preceding, is best known as the editor of the famous Mantuan Bible with Norzi's (q.v.) commentary, published under the title מנחִת שׁי. Basila added some notes, and also appended a list of nine hundred variations. The work was published at Mantua in 1742. The commentary itself was published at Vienna in 1813, and of late in the Warsaw Rabbinic Bible, 1860-66. The remark of the writer of the art. NORZI in this Cyclopoedia, "the work of Norzi marked great progress in Biblical exegesis, but it has no longer any value," is, to say the least, a very superficial one, for Norzi never attempted exegesis, but textual criticism, as any one acquainted with the work call see from the very first page. As to its value, it is best shown by the use which Baer and Delitzsch, the latest editors of the Hebrew text, make of it. See Furst, Bibl. Jud. i, 92; De' Rossi, Dizionari Storico (Germ. transl.), p. 53; Benjacob, Ozar Ha - Sephari, or Thesaurus Librorum Hebraicorum (Wilna, 1880), ii, 343, No. 1558; Dresde, Programma quo Commendantur Raphaelis Chajim Basila, Judcei Recentioris, Exercitationes Criticce in Diversitatem Lectionis Codicis Ebrasi ab Everardo van der Hooght Observatam (Wittenburg 1774). (B. P.)