First Impressions – Sefer Hasidim and Early Modern Hebrew Printing

Häftad, Engelska, 2023

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Uncovers the history of creative adaptation and transformation through a close analysis of the creation of the Sefer Hasidim book. In 1538, a partnership of Jewish silk makers in the city of Bologna published a book entitled Sefer Hasidim, a compendium of rituals, stories, and religious instruction that primarily originated in medieval Franco-Germany. How these men, of Italian and Spanish descent, came to produce a book that would come to shape Ashkenazic culture, and Jewish culture more broadly, over the next four centuries is the basis of this kaleidoscopic study of the history of Hebrew printing in the sixteenth century. During these early years of printing, the classic works of ancient and medieval Hebrew and Jewish literature became widely available to Jewish (and non-Jewish) readers for the first time. Printing, though, was not merely the duplication and distribution of pre-existing manuscripts, it was the creative adaptation and transformation of those manuscripts by printers. Ranging from Catholic Bologna to Protestant Basel to the Jewish heartland of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Joseph A. Skloot uncovers the history of that creativity by examining the first two print editions of Sefer Hasidim. Along the way, he demonstrates how volumes that were long thought to be eternal and unchanging were in fact artifacts of historical agency and contingency, created by and for human beings.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2023-04-26
Mått6 x 9 x 22 mm
Vikt416 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor268
FörlagBrandeis University Press
ISBN9781684581498

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Joseph A. Skloot, Ph.D. is the Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Assistant Professor of Modern Jewish Intellectual History at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion/New York. He is a historian of Jewish culture and religious thought in the early modern and modern periods. He received his Ph.D. in Jewish History from Columbia University, his rabbinical ordination from HUC-JIR, and his A.B. from Princeton University. His writings have appeared in Modern Judaism, the CCAR Journal, and several anthologies.

“The deep dive into textual development . . . reflects the best of what book historical work can offer—namely, the meaning behind the material culture that was so important in early modern intellectual life. . . . Skloot’s ability to explain significance is impressive, and his clear contextualization makes this a worthwhile book for scholars, students, and lay readers of book history, early modern Europe, and Jewish–Christian interaction.”