Browse Items (141 total)

Sefer ha-Hayyim ("the Book of Life") is a book of Jewish ethics. It was written by Hayyim ben Bezalel (Poland, c. 1520-1588). Hayyim ben Bezalel studied with Shalom Shachna and Solomon Luria (the Maharshal). He succeeded his uncle, Jacob ben Chaim,…

On the title page of most older Hebrew books, the year of publication is given through a chronogram. This distinctive convention is enabled by the dual function of the Hebrew alphabet, which serves as both letters and numbers. The chronogram is…

This is the bookstamp of Hermann Adler (1839-1911), chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire. He was born in Hannover, Germany in May 1839 to Dr. Nathan Marcus Adler of the prominent Adler rabbinical family. As a small…

This is the signature and purchase inscription of Gabriel Agol, son of Mosheh, in a copy of David de Pomis's Tsemaḥ Daṿid. Sources mention a Jew named Gabriel Agol living in Cuneo in 1607. A teacher and secretary in the Cuneo community named…

This is the bookstamp of the Akademie für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, which was established in Berlin in 1919 to promote Jewish scholarship and the publication of scholarly work. The academy was the first German institution to advocate for the…

Nagid u-metsaṿeh (first published in Amsterdam 1712) is an anthology of customs in the tradition of Isaac Luria. It was written by Jacob ben Ḥayyim Ẓemaḥ, a Portuguese cabalist and physician. Ẓemaḥ receivedmedical training in Portugal as…

This is the bookplate of Samuel Apolant (1823-1902), a German rabbi and teacher. Born to innkeeper Lewin Apolant and Miriam Perl, Samuel grew up in Deutsch-Krone, West Prussia. He received a Talmudic education there, and moved to Berlin at seventeen…

This is the signature of Samuel Apolant (1823-1902), a German rabbi and teacher. Born to innkeeper Lewin Apolant and Miriam Perl, Samuel grew up in Deutsch-Krone, West Prussia. He received a Talmudic education there, and moved to Berlin at seventeen…

This is an ownership inscription by Italian poet and grammarian Shmuel Arkevolty, found on the title page of Sefer ʻikarim by Joseph Albo (Venice : Giovanni Farri, 1543 or 1544).

The Hebrew text reads:
לה הארץ ומלואה
קנין…

This is the bookplate of the Associates of the Late Rev. Dr. Bray (est. 1723). Dr. Thomas Bray (1656-1730) was an English reverend who created a system of parochial libraries in many of the thirteen American colonies.

He was educated at All…