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Olszowy-Schlanger, Judith
2012.
Science in Medieval Jewish Cultures.
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359.
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A Typographical Odyssey: The 1505 Constantinople Pentateuch
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2009
Extract
Although the Wellcome Collection of Hebraica does not constitute one of the larger and more distinguished collections of oriental material in the Wellcome Institute, it nevertheless comprises a number of important manuscripts along with early printed books representative of several sixteenth and seventeenth-century Hebrew presses. One of these is a fragment of a larger work printed in Constantinople in 1505 at the press of David and Samuel Nahmias. It is the second earliest example of printing in Turkey, the first also coming from the press of the Nahmias brothers.
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References
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32 See note 30.
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34 The use of a decorative border in Hebrew and non-Hebrew books is not exclusive to this instance but is witnessed in the Aquila Volante ascribed to Leonardo Aretino and printed by Ayolfus de Cantoro in 1492 at Naples by a border also found in Bahya ben Asher's commentary on the Pentateuch printed by Azriel Gunzenhauzen also in Naples in 1492. This border again appears around the first page of the Pentateuch with commentaries printed by Samuel Nahmias in 1522 in Constantinople and in a work, Aderet Elijahu printed by Gershon Soncino in 1530-I also in Constantinople. See Roth, C., “The border of the Naples Bible of 1491–2”, Bodleian Library Record, IV (1953), pp. 295–303.Google Scholar
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36 See note 14.
37 Habermann, A. M., “The Jewish art of the printed book” in Jewish Art, An Illustrated History, ed. Roth, C. (London, 1961), col. 464,Google Scholar points out that a highly conscientious printer might have the entire border recut at considerable expense to suit the requirements of Hebrew books, or again the border could be cut into four pieces and rearranged with the wide margin outside as witnessed in some of the Soncino imprints.
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46 It has been suggested that Ibn Yahya, who was in the employment of Toledano, carried the Lisbon types to Constantinople. See The Jewish Encyclopedia, viii (1904), p. 107,Google Scholar and Manuel, Dom of Portugal, op. cit., p. 27.Google Scholar
47 The colophon is reproduced by Yaari, A., op. cit., pp. 59f.Google Scholar
48 Teicher, J. L., op. cit.,Google Scholar erroneously associates the occurrence of an acrostic in the colophon which discloses the name Eliezar with Eliezar Toledano and so claims the imprint for the Lisbon press.
49 See works cited in note 14 and Perush halakot ḳodesh ha-ḥodesh of Maimonides by Obadiah ben David (Zedner, , op. cit., p. 619;Google Scholar Cowley, , op. cit., p. 514.).Google Scholar
50 Yaari, A., op. cit., pp. 17f.Google Scholar
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