Prince of the press : how one collector built history's most enduring and remarkable Jewish library / Joshua Teplitsky.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Teplitsky, Joshua, author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Oppenheim, David ben Abraham, 1664-1736.

Oppenheim, David ben Abraham.

Hebrew imprints--Collectors and collecting--History.

Hebrew imprints.

Jewish libraries--History.

Jewish libraries.

Book collecting--History.

Book collecting.

History.

Collectors and collecting.

Physical Description:

xiv, 317 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2019]

Summary:

David Oppenheim (1664-1736), chief rabbi of Prague in the early eighteenth century, built an unparalleled collection of Jewish books and manuscripts, all of which have survived and are housed in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. His remarkable collection testifies to the myriad connections Jews maintained with each other across political borders, and the contacts between Christians and Jews that books facilitated. From contact with the great courts of European nobility to the poor of Jerusalem, his family ties brought him into networks of power, prestige, and opportunity that extended across Europe and the Mediterranean basin. Containing works of law and literature alongside prayer and poetry, his library served rabbinic scholars and communal leaders, introduced old books to new readers, and functioned as a unique source of personal authority that gained him fame throughout Jewish society and beyond. The story of his life and library brings together culture, commerce, and politics, all filtered through this extraordinary collection. Based on the careful reconstruction of an archive that is still visited by scholars today, Joshua Teplitsky's book offers a window into the social life of Jewish books in early modern Europe.--Publisher's website.

Contents:

1 Creating a Collector p. 22

2 Politics, Patronage, and Paper: Books and Broadsides as Political Objects p. 56

3 Collecting, Recording, and Practical Knowledge p. 93

4 "To Make Books Without End": From the Library to the Printing Press p. 130

5 Endorsing and incriminating: Oppenheim and Approbata in the Court of Opinion and the Courts of Law p. 162.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780300234909

0300234902

OCLC:

1030343513