Browse Items (141 total)

'Ene ha-'Edahis a collection ofcommentaries on Talmud Kiddushin, Talmud Bava batra, and Talmud Niddah. It includes contributions from Isaiah ben Mali di Trani (c. 1200), Yom Tov ben Avraham Ishbili (c. 1270-1342), Ibn Migash, Joseph ben Meir ha-Levi…

The tradition of putting a frame around the first page of a book arose even before the printing press, during the era of the scribes. Beginning in the 16th century, it became common to employ a gate as an architectural frame for the title page, as in…

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…

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…

Giovanni Vendramin founded a new Venetian Hebrew press under his name in 1630, establishing himself as a rival to the long-reigning Bragadin family. Vendramin is widely regarded as the last of the great Venetian printers of Hebrew books. The firm…

Images of the cosmos are also found on Hebrew title pages. The gateway on the title page of Shomer Emunim (Offenbach, 1723; below, flanked by Moses and Aaron) has the universe on top, with two angels on either side. Even though this is an 18th…

Luaḥ ha-peʻalim is a book of Hebrew grammar written by Judah Leib Ben Ze'ev (1764-1811), who was the first Jewish scholar to apply Western research methods to the study of Hebrew. Born near Cracow, Ben Ze'ev received a traditional Jewish…

'En ha-ḳore was written by Jacob Hart, pen name Elyakim ben Avraham (1745-1814). A Londonborn Jew and jeweler by trade, Hart became the finest Jewish scholar of his generation in England.

He published five small volumes, including Ma'amar Binah…

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.…

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…