Only edition of this two-part work on the principles of Talmud and on Psalms by R. Ezekiel David Abulafia. The first leaf has an Italian statement that there is nothing against the Church by Dr. Jacob Bondi followed by facing Italian and Hebrew title pages and an approbation from the rabbis in Livorna, R. Meir Sanginitt, R. Eliezer Sa’adon, and R. Menasheh of Padua.. Next are introductory pages of verse, an additional title page, and the text.  Ben Zekunim is in two parts. The first part, entitled Yesod Olam, is an introduction to the Talmud for young people, based on the Halikhot Olam of R. Jeshua b. Joseph ha-Levi . The final section quotes commendatory statements on the Talmud by gentile scholars such as Galatinus and Basnage . The second part, Mizmor le-David, contains miscellaneous poems and elegies, revealing a fair knowledge of classical mythology and literature, and closes with patriotic poems, e.g., on the educational reforms of Emperor Joseph II. The preface embodies a vigorous vindication of the Hebrew language. This is R. Abulafia’s only published work.<p>R. Ezekiel (Hezekiah) David ben Mordecai Abulafia (Bolaffi, (18th century) was an Italian scholar and poet. His family originated in Aquileia, but he himself lived first in Leghorn and then in Trieste, where he married the daughter of R. Isaac Formiggini. He began to write at the age of 13, but his early compositions (including an elegy on the victims of the disaster in the Mantua ghetto in 1776) were lost. R. Abulafia’s was also the author of  a work Psalms, Shiggayon le-David, which has been lost.<p>Added t.p.: in duas ... Ezechiae David Bolafii ... Ben Zechunim partes distributus ...