KINICHI, JOSEPH B. IsAAc, also called Mestre Petit, the father of the preceding writer, was com pelled to leave Spain on account of the persecu tions to which the Jews were subject by the NIo hammedans, settled in Narbonne, where be died about irSo. He devoted his whole life to the science of the Hebrew language and Biblical exegesis, and succeeded, by his clear and independent judgment, in creating a new epoch in the study of the He brew Scriptures among his brethren in southern France, by introducing there the learning of Spain, and continuing the labours of Ibn Ezra. He wrote— ( r.) A Coinmentary on the Pentateuch, entitled in ;Ton, The Book of the LaW, which is lost, except fragments of it extant in NIS., De Rossi 166, and in the quotation of his son D. Kinichi. (2.) A Com mentary on the Earlier Prophets called mpon The Bill of Purchase, in allusion to Jer. xxxii.
(3.) A Commentary on the Later Prophets, called 4r1 1DC:, The Unfolded Book, in allusion to Jer. xxxii. 14. These works, too, have not as yet come to light, and we only know them through the nu merous quotations from them dispersed through Da vid Kimchi's Commentaries on the Prophets. (4.) A Commentary on Job, a defective NIS. of which is both in the Bodleian Library and at Munich, 260.
(5.) A Commentary on Proverbs, a perfect MS. of which exists in the NIunich Library, No. 242. (6.) A Hebrew Grammar called inn? -ea, The Book of Remembrance, which is the first written by a Jew in a Christian country, and is quoted by D. Kimchi in the Michlol, tsup b. (7.) Another ,grammatical work, entitled ripri -vinn inp, also quoted in the Nlichlol .1j) a. Both as a commentator and a grammarian Joseph Kimchi deserves the highest praise, and though his works still remain unpub lished, his contributions to Biblical literature pro duced a most beneficial influence, inasmuch as they prepared the way in Christian countries for a literal and sound exegesis. His son, D. Kimchi, who constantly quotes him, both in his commentaries and under almost every root of his Hebrew Lexi con, has familiarised the Hebrew student with the grammatical and exegetical principles of this de servedly esteemed Hebraist. Comp. Biesenthal and Lebrecht's edition of D. Kimchi's Radieum liber, Berlin 1847, col. xxiv. seq.; and Geiger's excellent Treatise in Ozar Neehmad,i., Vienna S56, p. 97-119.—C. D. G.