Menachem Mendel

After Constantinople (קושטא, now Istanbul) and Salonika, Izmir (Smyrna) was the third pillar of Hebrew printing in the Ottoman Empire. The first Hebrew book printed in Izmir was Rosh Yosef, a commentary on the section Orah Hayyim of Yaakov b. Asher’s Tur by Rabbi Yosef Escapa
(אישקאפה) who was the rabbi of Izmir. According to the title page the printing process began on the third of Tishrei, the day after Rosh HaShannah, in 1657 and was finished on the fourteenth of Shevat in 1658. Although work had already begun on R. Escapa’s commentary on the Hoshen Mishpat section of the Tur, the second Hebrew book printed in Izmir was Sefer Ketubbot, a collection of piyyutim for Shavuot. From 1658-1675 the Hebrew printing in Izmir was done by the Gabbai family. The father, Yedidyah, founded the first Hebrew printing press in Livorno and operated it from 1650-1660. The grandfather Avraham, the author of Kaf Nahat on the Mishnah, worked as a typesetter at the press in Bragadine. The son Avraham also worked in the Livorno press and was sent by the father to set up the press in Izmir. The family also was also involved in the Sabbatian controversy.

My wife, who deserves a big thanks for this post, was recently in Izmir and through the use of her charm and the good-will of a number of community members, specifically Sara Pardo, she was able to see a collection of rare printed books from Izmir which were only recently found. In addition she was able to photograph some of them.

This is the title page of Rosh Yosef, the first Hebrew book printed in Izmir. Only three other copies are known to exist in the world and are found at Harvard, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania.

Here is a section of the Laws of Pesah from Rosh Yosef. Stay tuned for a further installment on the first book printed in Latin letters in Western Asia by the Gabbai family in Izmir.

Bibliography:

Dov Cohen, “HaDefus HaIvri BeIzmir” in Kiryat Sefer, 64, 4, pp. 1403-1423
Dina Eliezer, catalogue of books in Izmir community collection
A.M. Haberman, HaSefer HaIvri BeHitpathuto, Jerusalem, 1968
Avraham Yaari, Areshet, 1, 1959, pp. 97-222

Posted on April 7th, 2006 under Uncategorized • RSS 2.0 feed • Both comments and pings are currently closed