The Sixteenth Century Hebrew Book

The Sixteenth Century Hebrew Book is a bibliographic work describing books printed with Hebrew letters in that century, covering the gamut of Hebrew literature, encompassing liturgical works, Bibles, commentaries, Talmud, Mishnah, halakhic codes, kabbalistic works, fables, and belles-lettres. Each of the 455 entries has a descriptive text page comprised of background on the author, a description of the book’s contents and physical makeup, and is accompanied by a reproduction of the title or a sample page. There is an extensive introduction with an overview of Hebrew printing and a discussion of aspects of the Hebrew book in the sixteenth century, as well as detailed back matter. It is a necessary work for bibliographers, historians, and students of Jewish literature. The print edition is available as a set of two volumes (9789004129764).

"The Seventeenth Century Hebrew Book" is an encyclopedic, bibliographic work describing books printed with Hebrew letters in that century. It records and describes the authors, publishers, and printers of Hebrew books, as well as the books themselves. Similar to the author s other work, "The Sixteenth Century Hebrew Book," it covers the gamut of Hebrew literature, encompassing liturgical works, Bibles, commentaries, Talmud, Mishnah, halakhic codes, kabbalistic works, and fables. There are 691 entries comprised of a descriptive text page, background on the author, a description of the book s contents and physical makeup, all of which are accompanied by reproductions of the title or sample pages. There is an extensive introduction with an overview of Hebrew printing in the seventeenth century, as well as detailed back matter. It is a necessary work for bibliographers, historians, and students of Jewish literature.

The rise of printing had major effects on culture and society in the early modern period, and the presence of this new technology—and the relatively rapid embrace of it among early modern Jews—certainly had an effect on many aspects of Jewish culture. One major change that print seems to have brought to the Jewish communities of Christian Europe, particularly in Italy, was greater interaction between Jews and Christians in the production and dissemination of books. Starting in the early sixteenth century, the locus of production for Jewish books in many places in Italy was in Christian-owned print shops, with Jews and Christians collaborating on the editorial and technical processes of book production. As this Jewish-Christian collaboration often took place under conditions of control by Christians (for example, the involvement of Christian typesetters and printers, expurgation and censorship of Hebrew texts, and state control of Hebrew printing), its study opens up an important set of questions about the role that Christians played in shaping Jewish culture. Presenting new research by an international group of scholars, this book represents a step toward a fuller understanding of Jewish book history. Individual essays focus on a range of issues related to the production and dissemination of Hebrew books as well as their audiences. Topics include the activities of scribes and printers, the creation of new types of literature and the transformation of canonical works in the era of print, the external and internal censorship of Hebrew books, and the reading interests of Jews. An introduction summarizes the state of scholarship in the field and offers an overview of the transition from manuscript to print in this period.

Further Studies in the Making of the Early Hebrew Book addresses a variety of aspects of the early Hebrew book often treated in a cursory manner. The essays encompass book arts, printing-places and printers, and unusual book varia.

In The Censor, the Editor, and the Text, Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin examines the impact of Catholic censorship on the publication and dissemination of Hebrew literature in the early modern period. Hebrew literature made the transition to print in Italian print houses, most of which were owned by Christians. These became lively meeting places for Christian scholars, rabbis, and the many converts from Judaism who were employed as editors and censors. Raz-Krakotzkin examines the principles and practices of ecclesiastical censorship that were established in the second half of the sixteenth century as a part of this process. The book examines the development of censorship as part of the institutionalization of new measures of control over literature in this period, suggesting that we view surveillance of Hebrew literature not only as a measure directed against the Jews but also as a part of the rise of Hebraist discourse and therefore as a means of integrating Jewish literature into the Christian canon. On another level, The Censor, the Editor, and the Text explores the implications of censorship in relation to other agents that participated in the preparation of texts for publishing—authors, publishers, editors, and readers. The censorship imposed upon the Jews had a definite impact on Hebrew literature, but it hardly denied its reading, in fact confirming the right of the Jews to possess and use most of their literature. By bringing together two apparently unrelated issues—the role of censorship in the creation of print culture and the place of Jewish culture in the context of Christian society—Raz-Krakotzkin advances a new outlook on both, allowing each to be examined through the conceptual framework usually reserved for the other.

In 1797, in what is now the Czech Republic, Pin as Hurwitz published one of the best-selling Hebrew books of the modern era. Nominally an extended commentary on a sixteenth-century kabbalist text, The Book of the Covenant was in fact a compendium of scientific knowledge and a manual of moral behavior. Its popularity stemmed from its ability to present the scientific advances and moral cosmopolitanism of its day in the context of Jewish legal and mystical tradition. Describing the latest developments in science and philosophy in the sacred language of Hebrew, Hurwitz argued that an intellectual understanding of the cosmos was not at odds with but actually key to achieving spiritual attainment. In A Best-Selling Hebrew Book of the Modern Era, David B. Ruderman offers a literary and intellectual history of Hurwitz�s book and its legacy. Hurwitz not only wrote the book, but was instrumental in selling it as well and his success ultimately led to the publication of more than forty editions in Hebrew, Ladino, and Yiddish. Ruderman provides a multidimensional picture of the book and the intellectual tradition it helped to inaugurate. Complicating accounts that consider modern Jewish thought to be the product of a radical break from a religious, mystical past, Ruderman shows how, instead, a complex continuity shaped Jewish society�s confrontation with modernity.