Studies in the Making of the Early Hebrew Book (Studies in Jewish History and Culture)

✍ Scribed by Marvin J. Heller

• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 433
• Series: Studies in Jewish History and Culture volume 15
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

"Studies in the Making of the Early Hebrew Book" is a collection of twenty-four essays on various aspects of Hebrew book production in the 16th through 18th centuries. The subject matter encompasses little known printing-presses, makers of Hebrew books, and book arts. The print-shops were in such locations as Padua, Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Verona, and the first presses in Livorno. Among the makers of Hebrew books are a peripatetic printer, a chief rabbi accused of plagiarism, a convert to Judaism, and a court Jew. Book arts address the titling of Hebrew books, dating by means of chronograms, printers' pressmarks, mirror-image monograms, and the development of the Talmudic page. The book is completed with miscellaneous but related articles on early Hebrew book sale catalogues, worker to book production ratio in an eighteenth century press, and an attempt to circumvent the Inquisition's ban on the printing of the Talmud in sixteenth Century Italy.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
......Page 6
Hebrew Book Arts
......Page 8
1. Mars and Minerva on the Hebrew Title Page......Page 14
2. The Printer's Mark of Immanuel Benveniste and its Later Influence......Page 31
3. Mirror-image Monograms as Printers' Devices on Title Pages of Hebrew Books Printed in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries......Page 46
4. The Cover Design, "The Printer's Mark of Marco Antonio Giustiniani and the Printing Houses that Utilized It"......Page 57
5. Chronograms on Title Pages in Selected Eighteenth Century Editions of the Talmud......Page 67
6. Adderet Eliyahu; a Study in the Titling of Hebrew Books......Page 85
7. Designing the Talmud: The Origins of the Printed Talmudic Page......Page 105
8 . Early Hebrew Printing from Lublin to Safed: The Journeys of Eliezer ben Isaac Ashkenazi......Page 119
9. "There were in Padua almost as many Hebrew printers as Hebrew books." The Sixteenth Century Hebrew Press in Padua......Page 134
10. Ambrosius Froben, Israel Zifroni, and Hebrew Printing in Freiburg-im-Breisgau......Page 144
11. A Little Known Chapter in Hebrew Printing: Francesco dalle Donne and the beginning of Hebrew Printing in Verona in the Sixteenth Century......Page 164
12. Jedidiah ben Isaac Gabbai and the First Decade of Hebrew Printing in Livorno......Page 178
13. Abraham ben Raphael Meldola and the Resumption of Printing in Livorno......Page 191
14. David ben Aryeh Leib of Lida and his Migdal David: Accusations of Plagiarism in Eighteenth Century Amsterdam......Page 204
15. Moses Benjamin Wulff—Court Jew......Page 219
16. Moses ben Abraham Avinu and his Printing-Presses......Page 231
17. Giovanni Bernardo de Rossi's Dictionary of Hebrew Authors (Dizionario Storico degli Autori Ebrei e delle Loro Opere)......Page 242
18. The Hebrew Book-Trade as Reflected in Book Catalogues......Page 254
19. Observations on the Worker to Book Production Ratio in an Eighteenth Century Hebrew Printing-House......Page 270
20. And the Work, the Work of Heaven, was Performed on Shabbat......Page 279
21. His Hand Did Not Leave Hers Until He Was Grown: Two Little Known Works from Moses Cordovero (Ramak)......Page 291
22. The Bath-Sheba/Moses de Medina Salonika Edition of Berakhot: An Unknown Attempt to Circumvent the Inquisition's Ban on the Printing of the Talmud in 16th-Century Italy......Page 297
23. Observations on a Little Known Edition of Tractate Niddah (Prague, c. 1608) and its Relationship to the Talmudic Methodology of the Maharal of Prague......Page 311
24. Observations on the Reprinting of Kesef Nivhar......Page 328
Index......Page 336
Plates......Page 360