Browse Items (141 total)

So central was Amsterdam to Hebrew printing that books published elsewhere still sought to link themselves to Amsterdam in the hope that it would increase respect for the product and improve sales. This Talmud commentary by Levi ben Shelomoh (Sefer…

Manuel (also Immanuel) Benveniste was another Sephardic printer in 17th century Amsterdam. He was born in Venice in 1608 and died in Amsterdam ca. 1660.

Here we see his 1654 edition of Solomon ibn Verga’s Shevet Yehudah, a history of the…

Pe’er Ha-Dor (“glory of the generation”) contains the responsa of Maimonides, the great 12th Jewish scholar and philosopher. Responsa are answers to specific questions of Jewish law. Maimonides left over 250 such answers, but they were never…

David de Kastro (also de Castro) Tartas (1630-1698) worked for the printer Manasseh ben Israel in Amsterdam before setting up his own press in 1662. In 1678 he became a member of the Amsterdam Printers' Guild, competing with Uri ben Aaron ha-Levi,…

Manasseh (also Menasseh) Ben Israel (1604-1657) was the first publisher of Hebrew books in Amsterdam, setting up shop in 1626. Like Benjamin Franklin a century later, Manasseh was not only a printer, but a writer, community leader, and diplomat.…

Samuel Proops founded his press in 1704. At first, he printed mainly prayer books for Sephardic and Ashkenazic rites. Proops was the first to bring out a sales catalog of Hebrew books. His press became the most important printing house in 18th…

Giovanni Griffio the Elder was likely born in Lyon in 1518 and was a descendant of the Gryphe publishing family, one of the best known dynasties of printers and publishers in Europe in the 16th century. The Gryphe publishing house was originally…

Daniel Bomberg was a Christian printer active in Venice from approximately 1517 to 1549. It is believed he was born sometime in the 1480s in Antwerp to Cornelius van Bomberghen , who taught him how to print and make types. There is debate as to when…

Giovanni di Gara (active 1564-1610) was known in Venice as the “heir of Bomberg” not only because Bomberg instructed him in Hebrew printing, but also because Di Gara acquired most of Bomberg’s Hebrew types. He was born in Riva del Garda to…

Alvise Bragadin (also Bragadini) was born in the early 1500s and settled in his hometown of Venice, where he became a renowned Christian printer of Hebrew books. He founded the firm Stamparia Bragadina which enjoyed wild success during his lifetime…