History of the Early Printed Hebrew Book: Non-Hebrew Printing (Yiddish, Ladino, Spanish, etc.)

This is a guide to the History of the Early Printed Hebrew Book. It was copied with permission from the guide at the University of Pennsylvania, created by Bruce E. Nielsen, and updated for Columbia University by Michelle Chesner

Printing in non-Hebrew languages

Books printed in Hebrew characters but in different languages (notably Spanish, German, Arabic and Persian) are witnesses to audiences earer for more than the classic rabbinic and/or strictly religious books.  Though strictly not Hebrew books, the intersection of Jewish culture with host cultures resulted in new demands by readers, created new opportunities for authors, provided new markets for printers and are subject to separate scholarly studies.

Yiddish

  • Aptroot, Marion, "'In galkhes they do not say so, but the taytsh is at it stands here'. Notes on the Amsterdam Yiddish Bible Translations by Blitz and Witzenhausen," Studia Rosenthaliana 27 (1993): 136-158
  • Baumgarten, Jean, “Élie Bahur Lévita et la naissance de la grammaire yiddish,” pp. 215-34 in, En mémoire de Sophie Kessler-Mesguich (Paris:  Presses Sorbonne nouvelle, 2012) edd. Jean Baumgarten, José Costa, Jean-Patrick Guillaume and Judith Kogel

Available via ILL

Available via Borrow Direct

  • Romer-Segal, Agnes, “Yiddish Works on Women’s Commandments in the Sixteenth Century,” pp. 37-59 in Studies in Yiddish Literature and Folklore (Jerusalem: 1986)
  • Romer-Segal, Agnes, “Yiddish Literature and its Readers in the 16th Century:  Books in the Censors’ Lists, Mantua 1595,” [Hebrew] Kiryat Sefer 53 (1978) 779-790
  • Rosenfeld, Moshe N., “The Origins of Yiddish Printing,” pp. 111-136 in, Origins of the Yiddish Language (Oxford :  Pergamon Press, 1987) ed. Dovid Katz
  • Rubin, Noga, "Sefer Lev Tov, Prague 1620: The First Edition of the Book?," Zutot 5(2008) 121-127
  • Shmeruk, Chone, “The first Yiddish editions in Italy,” [Hebrew] Italia 3 (1982) 112-75
  • Shmeruk, Chone, “Yiddish Printing in Italy,” pp. 171-190 in, Yiddish in Italia : Yiddish manuscripts and printed books from the 15th to the 17th century (Milano : Associazione Italiana Amici dell' Universita di Gerusalemme, 2003) edd. Erika Timm and Chava Turniansky, with the collaboration of Claudia Rosenzweig
  • Sidorko, Clemens P., Basel und der jiddische Buchdruck (1557–1612): Kulturexport in der Frühen Neuzeit (Basel :  Schwabe, 2014)
  • Sidorko, Clemens P., “The Most Beautiful Printed Book in Old Yiddish.” Zum Bildschmuck des Zürcher Sefer Yosippon von 1546,” Judaica 72 (2016) 1-48
  • Steinschneider,  Moritz, “Jüdisch-deutsche Literatur nach einem handschriftlichen Katalog der Opeenheim’schen Bibliothek (in Oxford,” Serapeum, Zeitschrift für Bibliotekwissenschaft, Handscriftenkunde und ältere Litteratur 9 (1848) 313-20, 321-36, 344-52, 363-68, 375-84; 10 (1849) 9-16, 25-32, 42-48, 74-80, 88-96, 107-112.
  • Tanner, Regula, "Sefer ha-Yira und Sefer Hayye Olam - zwei jiddische Drucke aus Freiburg i. Br. von 1583," Judaica 68 (2012) 105-128
  • Timm, Erika, "Blitz and Witzenhausen," pp. 39-66 in, כמנהג אשכנז ופולין : ספר יובל לחנא שמרוק : קובץ מחקרים בתרבות יהודית  = Studies in Jewish culture in honour of Chone Shmeruk (Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, 1993) edd. Israel Bartal, Chava Turniansky, and Ezra Mendelsohn
  • Timm, Erika and Chava Turniansky ; Italian version with the collaboration of Claudia Rosenzweig, Yiddish in Italia : carte ritrovate : manoscritti e antiche edizioni a stampa in yiddish di area italiana : [Biblioteca nazionale Braidense : Milano, 19 febbraio-2 marzo 1996]
  • Timm, Erika and Chava Turniansky; English version with the collaboration of Claudia Rosenzweig, Yiddish in Italia : Yiddish manuscripts and printed books from the 15th to the 17th century = manoscritti e libri a stampa in yiddish dei secoli XV-XVII (Milano : Associazione Italiana Amici dell' Universita di Gerusalemme, 2003)
  • Wolfthal, Diane, Picturing Yiddish: Gender, Identity, and Memory in the Illustrated Yiddish Books of Renaissance Italy (Leiden : Boston : Brill, 2004)
  • Zafren, Herbert C., “Three Pseudo-Yiddish Books from 1694,” Hebrew Union College Annual 70/71 (1999/2000) 385-403
  • Zafren, Herbert C., “Variety in the Typography of Yiddish:  1535-1635,” Hebrew Union College Annual 53 (1982) 137-63

Ladino

Ben-Ur, Aviva
“Ladino in print:  Toward a comprehensive bibliography,” Jewish History 16 (2002) 309-326
Katz Center - Periodicals Gallery. DS101 .J46556
Van Pelt Library. DS101 .J46556
http://people.umass.edu/abenur/article%20pdfs/Ben-Ur,%20%22Ladino%20in%20Print%22.pdf

Borovaya, Olga
Modern Ladino Culture: Press, Belles Lettres, and Theater in the Late Ottoman Empire
Bloomington :  Indiana University Press, c2012
Katz Center - Stacks. DS135.T8 B68 2012
Van Pelt Library. DS135.T8 B68 2012

Landau, Jacob M.
“Hebrew [and Ladino] printing in Ottoman Istanbul,” pp. 21-29 in, The Studies on the Hebrew Language / Ibrani Dili Üzerine Arastirmalar (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014) edd. Ali Küçükler and Hüseyin Içen
Van Pelt Library. PJ4509 .S88 2014

Lazar, Moshe
The Ladino Bible of Ferrara 1553 - A Critical Edition
Culver City, CA : Labyrinthos, 1992
Available via BorrowDirect, Harvard University

Lehmann, Matthias B.
Ladino Rabbinic Literature and Ottoman Sephardic Culture
Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2005
Katz Center - Stacks. DS135.L4 L44 2005
Van Pelt Library. DS135.L4 L44 2005

Lehmann, Matthias B.
“The Intended Reader of Ladino Rabbinic Literature and Judeo-Spanish Reading Culture,” Jewish History 16 (2002) 283-307
Katz Center - Periodicals Gallery. DS101 .J46556
Van Pelt Library. DS101 .J46556
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/20101479.pdf?acceptTC=true

Lehmann, Matthias B.
“Print and the Vernacular: The Emergence of Ladino Reading Culture.  The Eighteenth-Century Classic:  Huli’s Me’am Lo’ez,” pp. 31-48 and 217-222 in, Ladino Rabbinic Literature and Ottoman Sephardic Culture (Bloomington:  Indiana University, 2005 Press)
Katz Center - Stacks. DS135.L4 L44 2005
Van Pelt Library. DS135.L4 L44 2005

Simon, Rachel
“The Contribution of Hebrew Printing Houses and Printers in Istanbul to Ladino Culture and Scholarship,” Judaica Librarianship 16/17 (2011) 125-135
Katz Center - Periodicals B2. Z675.J4 A57
Van Pelt Library. Z675.J4 A57
http://ajlpublishing.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=jl

 

Spanish and Portuguese