Urbino, Salomon Ben-abraham

Urbino, Salomon ben-Abraham a Jewish writer who flourished in 1480, is the author of a lexicon on the synonyms of the Old Test., entitled אוהל מעד, The Tabernacle of the Congregation in allusion to Ex 33:7, "because therein are congregated expressions which differ in sound, but are like in essence" (ועד למלין השוים בהוראה אחת ושפת מתחלפת מצד היותו כית). The synonyms are divided into groups, the alphabetical order of which is determined by its most important word. Each group commences with the formula המלה אשר הונחה להירות, i.e. the word which is put down is to teach, being made, up from the abbreviation of the title of the work, viz. האהל, and is illustrated by quotations from the Old Test. and the corresponding passages from the Targum, as well as by quotations from Saadia Gaon's Arabic translation of the Pentateuch, the works of Dunash ibn-Librat, Hai Gaon, Ibn-Ganaclh, Ibn-Giath, Nathan ben-Jechiel, Ibin- Balaam, Nachmanides, Ibn-Sarck, etc . The lexicon was published at Venice in 1548, and is now very rare. See Fürst, Bibl. Jud. 3, 461; De Rossi, Dizionario Storico, p. 323 (Germ. transl.); Steinschneider, Catalogus Libr. Bebr. in Bibl. Bodl. p. 2391; Kitto, Cyclop. s.v.; Geiger, in Zeitschrift der deutsch. morgenl. Gesellsch. (Leips. 1863), 17:321; Wolf, Bibl. ebr. 1, 1037, etc. (B. P.)