By April 7, 2008 Read More →

Impact of Printing

  1. Overview
    1. Overview- Impact of Printing
  2. Primary sources and presentations
    1. Seder Mitzvot Nashim, Edward Fram, Ben-Gurion University, Israel.
    2. Sefer Ha-Heshek. Moshe Rosman, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
    3. Popularization of the Kabbalah,- Two Early Modern Perspectives, Boaz Huss, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
    4. Sefer `Ets Hayyim, Yosef Hacker, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
    5. Hurvitz, Mark. “The Colophon to Soncino’s Sefer Hashorashim.” In The Rabbinic Perception of Printing as Depicted in Haskamot and Responsa (M.A. Thesis), 13-14. Cincinnati- Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 1978.
    6. Hurvitz, Mark. “Haskamah I, Fol. 181.” In The Rabbinic Perception of Printing as Depicted in Haskamot and Responsa, 18-20. Cincinnati- Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 1978.
    7. Hurvitz, Mark. “Haskamah II, Fol, 181.” In The Rabbinic Perception of Printing as Depicted in Haskamot and Responsa, 21-22. Cincinnati- Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 1978.
    8. Hurvitz, Mark. “Haskamah III, Fol. 181.” In The Rabbinic Perception of Printing as Depicted in Haskamot and Responsa, 23-24. Cincinnati- Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 1978.
    9. Hurvitz, Mark. “Haskamah IV, Fol. 183.” In The Rabbinic Perception of Printing as Depicted in Haskamot and Responsa, 25-26. Cincinnati- Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 1978.
    10. Hurvitz, Mark. “Haskamah V, Fol. 183.” In The Rabbinic Perception of Printing as Depicted in Haskamot and Responsa, 27-28. Cincinnati- Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 1978.
    11. Hurvitz, Mark. “Haskamah VI, Fol. 183.” In The Rabbinic Perception of Printing as Depicted in Haskamot and Responsa, 29-30. Cincinnati- Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 1978.
    12. Hurvitz, Mark. “Haskamah VII, Fol, 183.” In The Rabbinic Perception of Printing as Depicted in Haskamot and Responsa, 31-32. Cincinnati- Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 1978.
    13. Hurvitz, Mark. “Haskamah VIII, Fol. 183.” In The Rabbinic Perception of Printing as Depicted in Haskamot and Responsa, 33-36. Cincinnati- Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 1978.
    14. Slonik, Benjamin. “On the Holiness of Printed Books- From the Responsa of Benjamin Slonik, Mas’at Binyamin # 99.” In Mark Hurvitz, The Rabbinic Perception of Printing as Depicted in Haskamot and Responsa, 72-82. Cincinnati- Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 1978.
    15. Slonik, Benjamin. “On the Trimming of Printed Pages During Bookbinding- From the Responsa of Benjamin Slonik, Mas’at Binyam # 100.” In Hurvitz, The Rabbinic Perception of Printing as Depicted in Haskamot and Responsa, 82-95. Cincinnati- Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (MA Thesis), 1978.
  3. Secondary sources
    1. Davis, Natalie Zemon. “Printing and the People” in Society and Culture in Early Modern France– 189-227.
    2. Deluga, Waldemar, and Iwona Zych. “Jewish Printed Amulets.” Print Quarterly 20, no. 4 (2003)- 369-373. Abstract- Discusses prints that included amulets that once hung above a newborn’s bed. Zodiac signs and Hebrew inscriptions frequently appear on such amulets. The opening text is always from Psalm 20, and below it appears the Star of David. The names of Adam, Eve, and Lilith and of three angels appear above the star, and below it the names of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, and Leah. Jews believed that Lilith could kill newborn boys until the eighth day and newborn girls until the twentieth day. Lilith promised not to kill any child above whose bed she could see the three angels’ names or their physiognomy on an amulet. The Lilith story engendered a rite to protect newborns, which involved writing “Adam and Eve. Lilith be gone” on the wall of a child’s room and later evolved into hanging amulets. The oldest known amulet was made as a single-leaf print in Prague in the 17th century. The woodcut illustrations have clearly been reused in this amulet; the original woodcuts were probably quite worn. Elements of the typographic decoration resemble those in Czech prints. It seems that the blocks used in some Jewish prints in Prague were exported to other European locales.
    3. Eisenstein, Elisabeth. “Some Conjectures on the Impact of Printing on Western Society and Thought- A Preliminary Report.” Journal of Modern History 40 no. 1 (1968)- 1-56.
    4. Fram, Edward, and Magda Teter. “Apostasy, Fraud, and the Beginning of Hebrew Printing in Cracow.” AJS Review 30, no. 1 (2006)- 31-66.
    5. Heller, Marvin J. “Early Hebrew Printing from Lublin to Safed- The Journeys of Eliezer Ben Isaac Ashkenazi.” Jewish Culture and History 4, no. 1 (2001)- 81-96.
    6. Heller, Marvin J. “”There Were in Padua Almost as Many Hebrew Printers as Hebrew Books” – the Sixteenth Century Hebrew Press in Padua.” Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 78, no. 2003 (2003)- 86-92.
    7. Newman, Jane. “Word Made Print.” Representations, 11 (1985)- 95-133.
    8. Ravid, Benjamin. “The Prohibition against Jewish Printing and Publishing in Venice and the Difficulties of Leone Modena.” In Studies in Medieval Jewish History and Literature, edited by Isadore Twersky. Cambridge- Harvard University Press, 1979.
    9. Reiner, Elchanan. “The Ashkenazi Elite at the Beginning of the Modern Era- Manuscript Versus Printed Book.” Polin- Studies in Polish Jewry 10 (1997)- 85-98. Abstract- Discusses attitudes of Ashkenazi scholars to new methods of transmission of knowledge through printing. Medieval Ashkenazi intellectuals closely guarded their individual copies of halakhic literature, which contained notes and opinions unique to the sphere of the yeshiva in which they studied. Rabbi Moses Isserles, known as Rema, revolutionized this exclusionary approach with the publication of a printed version of his commentary on the widely read Shulhan Aruch (1565-66) or Prepared Table by noted Sephardic scholar Joseph Caro. Rema’s work, Torat hahatat (1569), incorporated the Ashkenazic and Sephardic interpretations into a new format that successfully blended the older medieval scribal tradition and emerging modern method and made available a vast storehouse of finely edited knowledge to an enlightened mass audience.
  4. Images
    1. Bible. Hamesh Megilot, Constantinople- Yonah Ashkenazi, 1744, BS1309.A2 1744, Title page.
    2. Education Chart, Livorno, 1846, B (NS)E126.
    3. Mahzor (Roman rite), Soncino/Casal Maggiore- Benei Soncino, 1485/6, Heb-73, Vol. 2, fol. 117v-118r.
    4. Meshal ha-Kadmoni, Isaac ben Solmon ibn Sahula, Brescia- Gershom Soncino, 1491, Heb-45, Fols. 18v-19r.
    5. Minhagim, Venice, 1593, BM700.I818 1593, Fol. 73v – Purim.
    6. Minhagim, Yiddish edition (?), Fol. 50r – Hanukah.
    7. Minhagim, Amsterdam, 1662, BM700.I818 1662, Fols. 2v (wedding), 65r (havdalah).
    8. Mirkevet ha-Mishneh, Anshil of Cracow, Helicz, Cracow, 1534, BS1121.A5 1534, Fol. 3v.
    9. Nofet Tzufim, Mantua- Abraham Conat, 1474-1477, Heb-62, Fol. 1r (with manuscript decoration).
    10. Printing house engraving 1, Jost Amman, Woodcut to Hans Sach’s stanzas in “Eygentliche Beschreibung aller Stände auf Erden” (Printed by Sigmund Feierabend, 1568).
    11. Printing house engraving 2, Copy of Jost Amman?, Found in David Amram’s The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy (Philadelphia, 1909), p. 17.
    12. Sifre, Venice- Daniel Bomberg, 1546, BM517.S7 1546, Title page.
    13. Talmud, Berakhot, Soncino, 1483, Printed by Joshua Solomon Soncino, Heb-102, Fols. 70v-71r.
    14. Talmud, Berakhot, Venice, 1520-1523, Printed by Daniel Bomberg, BM499 1520-1523 v.1, Fols. 46v-47r.
    15. Tur, Orah Hayyim, Jacob ben Asher, Leiria- Samuel Dortas, 1495, Heb-53, Fol. 13r.
    16. Zohar, Mantua, 1558, RB146-10, Title page.
    17. Abudarham, Fez, 1516, SHF 1729-3, Fol. 137v.
    18. Aderet Eliyahu, Elijah ben Moses Bashyazi, Printed by Gershom Soncino, Constantinople, 1531, SHF 1766-1, Fols. 1v-2r.
    19. Almanac, Italy, 1496, Heb-3.
    20. Birkat ha-Mazon, Venice, 1603, RB145-3, Title page.
    21. Shulhan Arukh, Venice, 1565, RB125-1-4, Title page.
  5. Websites
    1. From Written to Printed Text- The Transmission of Jewish Tradition

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