Browse Items (9012 total)

This is the bookstamp of Bibliothek der Synagogen Gemeinde zu Breslau (est. early 19th century), the Library of the Jewish community of Breslau.

The library was originally established as a reading room by M. Breslauer on Św. Antoniego Street.…

This is the signature of Fowler Comings (born 1727 or 1728), an English reverend and author. He was also a fellow of Hertford College of Oxford, where he studied Hebrew. Among his published works was "The Printed Hebrew Text of the Old Testament…

The is the bookstamp of Solomon I. Mizrahi (1898-1979). Mizrahi was born in Palestine, where he married Regina Barazani in 1921. In 1926 they settled in the Los Angeles area with their children.

Solomon Mizrahi served as rabbi in the Rhodesli…

This is the signature of Samson (Shimshon in Hebrew) ben Joshua Moses Morpurgo (1681-1740), an Italian rabbi and physician.

As a child, Morpurgo was educated in Venice and later studied at the University of Padua where he received his medical…

This is the signature of Shemuel Shemaiah (Samuel Shemaiah or Shemayah) Papo , an Italian rabbi, hakham (Torah scholar) and writer of halakhic responsa.

Born in 1708, most likely in the city of Ragusa where his father Abraham David Papo was…

This is the bookstamp of Adolf Rosenzweig (1850-1918), a German rabbi and author.

Rosenzweig was educated at the gymnasium at Budapest and later at the rabbinical seminary of Pressburg. Upon completing his studies, Rosenzweig went to Berlin to…

This is the bookplate of N.H. van Biema (1836-1901), a Dutch author, bibliographer and bibliophile. He is also referred to by his pseudonym "Yenahel" (ינהל), which is an acronym of the first initials of his Hebrew name Ya'akov Naftali Hirts Levi…

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…

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…

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…