Early Hebrew Printing from Lublin to Safed: The Journeys of Eliezer ben Isaac Ashkenazi

NOTES

• Ch.D. Friedberg, History of Hebrew Typography in Poland from its beginning in the year 1534 and its development to the present 2nd edn, enlarged, improved and revised from the sources (Tel Aviv: n. p., 1950), p.45 [Hebrew]. In the first edition of this work Friedberg expresses doubt as to the date of death of Hayyim Shahor, noting that he might have been the founder of the Lublin press. In the second revised edition he no longer entertains this possibility.
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• Eliezer's ability to relocate without undue difficulty from an eastern-European Ashkenaz society to a middle-Eastern Sephardic one is not unique. Examples of this movement between communities, within the printing trade alone, are numerous. The Soncinos—Ashkenazim, descendants of the Ba'alei Tosafot—printed in Italy and various locations in the Ottoman Empire, including Egypt. Sephardic refugees founded presses throughout the Mediterranean littoral, from Morocco to Constantinople; Abraham ben Samuel ha-Kohen Ashkenazi came from Italy to Constantinople; and another émigré from Poland, Jonah ben Jacob Ashkenazi, founded a press in Constantinople that lasted three generations (from 1710 to 1768). When Moses de Medina established a press in Salonika to print the responsa of his father, Samuel ben Moses de Medina, (Maharashdam, 1506–89), he recruited Sabbatai Mattathias Bath-Sheba (Basevi in Italian), scion of an Italian-Jewish family from Verona of German origin. Most interesting is Samuel ben Hayyim Ashkenazi, one of three Halicz brothers who had established the first Hebrew printing press in Poland, but subsequently apostatised. Samuel (Andreas) returned to Judaism and resumed printing in Constantinople, where in a Bible (1551–52) he writes, ‘do not call me Samuel but Shuvu'el for he returned to his God.’ For non-print examples, see below, note 11.
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• The date of books employing chronograms, and it was a common practice at this time, can be derived by adding 1240, the year the fifth millennium in the Hebrew calendar began, to the numerical value of the selected letters, in Shevu'ot, for example, 319, resulting in 1559, the year of publication. This computation is for the abbreviated era, which does not enumerate the millennium, that is, the 5 in 5319, is understood. In other chronograms, noted below, the date given is for the full era, so that the U representing the millennium, shown in brackets, must be subtracted, or not included in the computation, to arrive at the common era date. On the use of chronograms to date books see my ‘Chronograms on Title Pages in Selected Eighteenth Century Editions of the Talmud’, Studies in Bibliography and Booklore, 18 (1993), 3–14.
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• Friedberg (see note 1), pp.47–8.
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• 1995 . ‘The Origins of the Printed Talmudic Page’ . Tradition , 29.3 Concerning the development of the Talmudic page see my, 40–51. Concerning this Lublin Talmud edition see my Printing the Talmud: A History of the Earliest Printed Editions of the Talmud (Brooklyn: Im Hasefer, 1992), pp.329–42 and Raphael Natan Nuta Rabbinovicz, Ma'amar al Hadpasat ha-Talmud with additions, ed. by A. M. Habermann (Jerusalem: Mossad ha-Rav Kook, 1952), pp.60–67 [Hebrew], The other tractates printed by Eliezer are Bezah [egg, after its opening word, on the laws of festivals] (1567), Sukkah [booths, on the festival of Sukkot] and Eruvin [on Sabbath boundaries] (1568), Kiddushin [on matrimonial matters] (1572), and Niddah, [on menstrual laws] (1573). Gittin is an exception, the title page omitting the phrase ‘approbation of the Geonei Olam and Roshei Yeshivot’. The text of that title page is reprinted by A. Freimann, ‘Elieser ben Isak und seine Druck in Lublin, Konstantinople und Safed’, Zeitschrift für Hebräische Bibliographie, 11 (1907), 152–5 (p.l53).
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• Assaf , Simha . 1943 . “ ‘The Inner Life of Polish Jewry’ ” . In Beohelei Ya'akov 70 – 71 . Jerusalem : Mossad ha—Rav Kook . [Hebrew]
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• Friedberg (see note 1), p.48.
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• Judaica , Encyclopedia III . 1928 . Das Judentum im Geschichte und Gegenwart Verlag Eschkol A-G : Berlin . (-34), col.434.
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• Concerning the dating of the Turim to 1493, a matter of some controversy, see A. K. Offenberg, ‘The First Printed Book Produced at Constantinople’, Studia Rosenthaliana, 3 (1969), 96–112, repr. in A Choice of Corals: Facets of Fifteenth-Century Hebrew Printing (Nieuwkoop, 1992), pp. 102–32; and idem., ‘The Printing History of the Constantinople Hebrew Incunable of 1493: A Mediterranean Voyage of Discovery’, The British Library Journal, 22 (1996), 221–235.
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• The Jabez brothers first printed in Salonika, from 1543. Forced to relocate to Adrianople due to an outbreak of plague in 1555, Solomon continued on to Constantinople, while Joseph returned to Salonika when conditions permitted. He joined Solomon in Constantinople sometime after 1570.
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• Yaari , Avraham . 1967 . Hebrew Printing at Constantinople 30 Jerusalem : The Magnes Press . [Hebrew].
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• Yaari, Constantinople (see note 11), p.31. Eliezer was not alone in taking the surname Ashkenazi to distinguish himself in a new environment. Examples of rabbinic and kabbalistic figures named Ashkenazi, either because they moved from an Ashkenaz community to a predominantly Sephardic one or were descended from a family that had done so earlier are: Bezalel ben Abraham Ashkenazi (Shitah Mekubbezet [An Anthology of Novellae], c. 1520–1591/94), Joseph Ashkenazi (known as, ‘ha-Tanna’ of Safed, 1525–77), Saul ha-Kohen Ashkenazi (She'ilot le-Hakham [Rabbinic Responsa], 1470–1523), Eliezer ben Elijah Ashkenazi (Ma'aseh HaShem [Work of the Lord], 1513–86), and Samuel Jaffe ben Isaac Ashkenazi {Yefeh Mareh [Of Goodly Appearance], c. 1525–95). Most prominent, however, are Isaac ben Solomon Luria (ha—Ari, that is, the [sacred] lion, 1534–72), the preeminent kabbalist, and Zevi Hirsch Ben Jacob Ashkenazi (1660–1718), known as the Hakham Zevi, the Sephardic equivalent of rabbi.
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• The Romaniot rite, an ancient liturgy once used throughout the Balkans, was largely supplanted by the influx of Sephardim in the sixteenth century and is almost unknown today. It contains variant wording from, and many piyyutim not said in other rites. Concerning this rite see Daniel Goldschmidt, ‘The Mahzor Romania’, Sefunot, 8 (1964), 205–36 [Hebrew]
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• Yaari, Constantinople (see note 11), pp. 124–5 n. 188. Kashti's criticism must be tempered by the fact that just as he returned to the Jabez brothers, he also printed again with Eliezer (see below, Lev Hakham, 1586).
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• Yaari, Constantinople (see note 11), pp.30–31 and 126–7 n.191. Concerning the widespread use of this device, see my ‘The Printer's Mark of Marc Antonio Giustiniani and the Printing Houses that Utilized It’ (Library Quarterly, 71.3 (2001), 383–9). Concerning another mark also widely used by printers over an extended period of time, see my ‘The Printer's Mark of Immanuel Benveniste and the Printing Houses that Made Use of It: A Study in the Varied Usage of a Printer's Insignia’, Studies in Bibliography and Booklore, 19 (1994), 3–20.
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• For the dating of Sha'arei Dura see I. Rivkind, ‘Variants in Old Books’, in Alexander Marx Jubilee Volume, Hebrew Section (New York, 1950), 401–32 (p.422 n.26).
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• Heller, Earliest Printed Editions (see note 5), pp.349–50 and Avraham Yaari, Hebrew Printers' Marks (Jerusalem, 1943; repr. Gregg International Publishers, Farnborough, 1971), pp.11, 129–31 n.16–17 [Hebrew]
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• Rivlin , Joseph J. ‘A History of Printing in Erez Izrael and Syria’ . Mizrah u-Ma'ariv , 1 A contrary opinion is expressed by (1920), 104–9, 294–7 (p. 104) [Hebrew], who writes that ‘the press was founded by two brothers, Eleazer and Abraham ben Isaac’.
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• Yaari , Abraham . ‘Emissaries from Erez Israel to Safed’ . Sinai , 2 Concerning Abraham ben Isaac Ashkenazi see (1938), 393–404 [Hebrew]; idem., Sheluhei Erez Yisrael 0erusalem: Mossad ha-Rav Kook, 1951), pp.77 and 256–8 [Hebrew]; and idem., ‘The Sale of Books in Yemen by Emissaries of Erez Israel’, in Studies in Hebrew Booklore Qerusalem: Mossad ha—Rav Kook, 1958), pp.163–4 [Hebrew]
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• Avraham Yaari, Hebrew Printing in the East: Part I Special Supplement to KS, 17 (1936), pp. 10–11 [Hebrew]
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• 1852 . Catalogus Liborium Hebraeorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana typis A. Friedlaender : Berlin . A number of bibliographers, most notably Moritz Steinschneider, (-60), col.33 no.180, Freimann (see note 5), p.155, and Rivlin (see note 18), p.105, attribute Havazzelet ha-Sharon [Rose of Sharon] on Daniel (1563) by Moses Alshekh to Safed, with Abraham ben Isaac Ashkenazi as a printer. The error is based on a reference on the title page to Alshekh as a resident of Safed, which was, in the absence of the place of printing, taken as the location of the press. Havazzelet ha-Sharon was, in fact, printed in Constantinople at the Jabez press. See A. Tauber, ‘The History of Printing in Erez Israel’, Bibliographical Studies, Special Supplement to KS, 9 (1932), 1–14 (pp.3–4) [Hebrew]
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• Other instances of contemporary commentaries on Megillat Esther written for mishlo'ah manot include Mehir Yayin [Price of Wine] (Cremona, 1559), by Moses ben Israel Isserles (Rema) and Manot ha-Levi [Portion of the Levi] (Venice, 1585), by Solomon ben Moses ha—Levi Alkabez.
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• Tamar , David . 1977 . Sefer Lekab Tov 25 Jerusalem : Bet ha-sefarim ha-le'umi veha-universita'i . [Hebrew]
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• Samuel Aripul is perhaps best known for his Mizmor le-Todah [Song of Thanks] (Venice, 1576), a commentary on Psalms 112–34 written as a ‘Korban Todah’ [Thanks Offering], upon his recovery from an illness lasting from 1569 to 1571. That part of the book on Psalms 120–34 (Shir ha-Maalot, Songs of Ascent) was reprinted in Cracow (1576) as Ne'im Zemirot. Concerning Kohelet Ya'akov see David Tamar, Studies in the History of the Jewish People in Erez Israel and Italy (Jerusalem: Rubin Mass, 1972), pp.150–54 [Hebrew], and for Sar Shalom see David Tamar, Studies in the History of the Jewish People in Erez Israel and the Lands of the East (Jerusalem: Mossad ha-Rav Kook, 1981), pp.37–43 [Hebrew].
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• A.M. Habermann, The Hebrew Press in Safed (Safed: Rubin Mass, n. d., repr. in Studies in the History of Hebrew Printers, Jerusalem, 1978), pp.311–20 (p.315) [Hebrew]
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• Scholem , Gershom . 1973 . Sabbatai Sevi, the Mystical Messiah, 1626–76 355 Princeton : Princeton University Press .
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• Waxman , Meyer . 1960 . “ A ” . In History of Jewish Literature Cranbury : Thomas Yoseloff . (1933, reprint), II, pp.93–7.
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• Habermann, Studies (see note 25), pp.316 no.8; Joseph Zedner, Catalogue of the Hebrew Books in the British Museum (London, 1867; reprint Norwich: the Trustees of the British Museum, 1964), p.390.
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• Jewish National and University Library (JNUL), Tour Hundred Years of Printing in Erez Israel 1577–97: Exhibition (Jerusalem, 1977), pp. viii-ix [Hebrew with English introduction].
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• 1980 . The Relation Between Greek and Italian Jewry 98 – 100 . Jerusalem : Menahem Press . Apart from any dissatisfaction with the worn letters and typography a prejudice in favour of Italian printing existed in Safed and its environment. Meir Benayahu, [Hebrew], remarks that several decades after the Talmud had been burned in Italy in the mid—sixteenth century scholars in Salonika once again chose to have their works printed in Venice because of the high quality of the imprints of the Venetian presses. Furthermore, Venice was always preferred by the sages of Safed, notwithstanding the hazards of a long journey by sea and typesetting and editing by strangers in the absence of the author, all justified by the superiority of Venice's presses. As a personal aside, with rare exceptions the press work of the Polish, Salonika, and Constantinople print-shops in no way compares with that of their Italian counterparts.
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