Ashkenaz

Menahem Azariah da Fano

Amarot Tehorot ["Holy Sayings"]

Frankfurt, 1698

Jewish settlement in the German city of Frankfurt extends at least as far back as the 12th century CE. By the 16th century, it was both the most important Jewish community in the Holy Roman Empire and a frequent site of anti-Jewish violence and expulsions. Powerful guilds used their influence to prohibit Jews from practicing most trades, and printing was no exception. Balthazar Christian Wust, a gentile, established the first Hebrew-language press there in 1657, engaging silent partners in the Jewish community for printing, correction, financing, and distribution. His son, Johann Wust, continued operation of the press until 1707 and printed the work displayed here: Amarot Tehorot, a Kabbalistic work by 16th-century Italian Rabbi Menahem Azariah da Fano.

The title page is typical of Wust's ornate style. On more than one occasion, the scanty clothing covering angelic figures angered local rabbis, sending Wust back to the drawing board. Note also the stamp reading “C. P. S. C. R. M.,” which stands for “Cum privilegio Sacrae Caesaris Regis Maiestatis" ("With the privilege of his Holy Imperial Majesty'). This signifies that the book had been reviewed and approved by censors working for Emperor Leopold I.

Aaron Moses ben Zevi Hirsch

Sefer Ohel Mosheh

Sulzbach, 1771

The turbulent history of the Jewish community of Sulzbach (today the Bavarian town of Sulzbach-Rosenberg) is typical of many Ashkenazic* communities in Central Europe. Expelled in the wake of the Black Death (1348-1349), Jews were welcomed back 300 years later by the Duke of Pfalz-Sulzbach during the period of relatively high tolerance that followed the Thirty Years War. In 1669, three years after Jews were granted settlement rights in the area, Isaac Kohen (Yuedeles), descendant of the illustrious Kohen printing dynasty of Prague, established Sulzbach's first Hebrew press.

Though the town of Sulzbach was small, it had an outsized printing history, with its Hebrew press producing over 700 works before shuttering in 1851. Sefer Ohel Mosheh, shown here, is a work of Hebrew grammatical instruction written by the Lemberg (L'viv) rabbi Aaron Moses ben Zevi Hirsch.

*Ashkenazi: term for Jews of Germanic or Central- and Eastern European heritage.

Moses May

Masseches Nida [Tractate Niddah of the Babylonian Talmud]

Metz, 1770

In the 17th century, the city of Metz in Northeast France established itself alongside Frankfurt as a center of Talmud study in Western Europe. It took until 1764, however, for Moses May to establish Metz's first Hebrew printing press, using equipment acquired from Frankfurt printer Carl Reich. May's early publications, one of which is shown here, were a collaboration with non-Jewish printer Joseph Antoine. This partnership was made necessary by the fact that May was unable to secure royal authorization to print (signified under Antoine's name at the bottom of the title page by the words "Imprimeur ordinaire du Roi, &."). Following Jewish emancipation at the time of the French Revolution in 1791, the May family struck out on their own and operated their press until the mid-19th century.

A tractate from an unusual edition of the Talmud, the volume is printed in octavo rather than the typical large-format quarto. This particular tractate, “Masseches Nida," deals with Jewish law surrounding menstruation and ritual purity.

Solomon ben Joseph

Shulhan Arukh - Orach Hayyim

Vienna, 1810

Following the partitions of Poland in the late-18th century, the Hapsburg Empire extended its rule over a large proportion of Central European Jewry. After establishing its first Hebrew press in 1793, the Hapsburg capital of Vienna quickly emerged as a formidable center of Jewish printing comparable to 17th-century Amsterdam and 16th-century Venice. The two most significant Hebrew printing houses in Vienna at the start of the 19th century belonged to gentile court printers Anton Schmid and Joseph Hrazchansky. The law code Shulhan Arukh, dispayed here, exemplifies Hrazchansky's printing as well as the geographic reach and reputation of Viennese Hebrew publications.

The book's inside cover is inscribed “Cairo, 1964," in memory of "the late Ephraim Yitshak Gabbai.” Gabbai (1898-1952) was a prominent Baghdad-born Jewish resident of Cairo and son of Yitshak Gabbai (1865-1935), owner of the engraving workshop in the photograph shown here.

Meir ben Gedaliah of Lublin ("Maharam”)

Sefer Me’ir 'ene hakhamim

Lemberg (L'viv), 1815

First published in 1619, Sefer Me'ir 'ene hakhamim (a pun on the Rabbi's first name, translating roughly to “Enlightening, Wise Eyes") is a commentary on the Talmud by the Lublin (Poland) rabbi known as the Maharam (1558-1616). This edition was printed in Lemberg (L'viv in present-day Ukraine), by Aharon ben Haayyim David Segal.

Segal belonged to a large and prominent printing family with roots in 17th-century Amsterdam that was responsible for bringing the popular Amsterdam style of typography to Poland. The descendants of Dutch printer Uri ben Abraham Phoebus haLevi—which included the families Madfes, Grossman, Rosanes, and Letteris-dominated the printing culture of two neighboring centers of Hebrew publishing: first Zolkiew (Zhovkva), where they established the first Hebrew presses in 1692, and later Lemberg (Lvov/L'viv). Following the partition of Poland in 1772, the Hapsburg regime forced the printing families of Zolkiew to relocate to Lemberg, in order to concentrate Hebrew publishing and streamline official censorship.