REUCHLIN, JOHANNES. De Arte Cabalistica libri tres. [colophon: Hagenau, apud Thomam Anshelmum, 1517]. Woodcut allegorical device on title; Roman, Greek and Hebrew letters. Folio, contemporary panelled calf gilt, panels gilt ruled on covers and decorated with gilt devices, surrounding large central gilt ornament (upper cover with owner's stamp on top of central ornament), binding worn, joints cracked; lacks front flyleaf, some marginal worming and staining, extensive marginalia, including drawings, in a carefully formed humanistic cursive; additional marginal annotations and extensive notes on title page in several German hands of the late sixteenth century; seven pages of Latin poetry in German script on f 08v and continuing onto two loose bifolia laid in at end of book. FIRST EDITION. Adams R381; Brunet IV:1253 ("ouvrage non terminé"); Caillet 9333 ("Jean Reuchlin établit dans ce magnifique ouvrage l'accord complet qui existe entre l'enseignement des premiers philosophes grecs notamment Pythagore, et les doctrines de la Kabbale); Josef Benzing. Bibliographie der Schriften Johannes Reuchlins im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert. (Bad Bocklet, 1955). No. 99. Johann Reuchlin, the celebrated German humanist and cabbalist, was born in Pforzheim in 1455, and died at Stuttgart in 1522. While he "promoted the study of Greek and introduced neo-Latin comedy into Germany, it was his pioneering work in the study of Hebrew language and of the Cabbala that earned him his historical significance. He used his extensive travels to establish contact with other humanists and learned Jews and to acquire manuscripts and printed works for his library, which was one of the largest private book collections of his time...when Johann Pfefferkorn began his campaign for the suppression of all Hebrew books, the Emperor Maximilian I sought the advice of several experts. Of these Reuchlin was the only one to oppose Pfefferkorn in his assessment" (Bietenholz).