Even ha-Ezer (Prague 1610): Some Remarks on the Printed Book Production of Learned Literature in Hebrew
Abstract
This chapter is a case study of the editio princeps of Eleazar bar Nathan's halakhic work Even ha-Ezer (Prague 1610). Circumstances of the production are reconstructed based on the rich paratexts in the ed. princ.
The roles of a discoverer of the manuscript, initiator of the edition, its producer, sponsor, editor and master printer are analyzed. The edition is interpreted in the context of the printed production of learned literature in Hebrew (ca. 1520-ca. 1620).
Obvious limitations of Hebrew printing are indicated and explained not as resulting from the minority situation of the Jews but rather from specific cultural values, projected onto the reading practices. For the 16th-century jews, reading remains a ritualized religious activity, for which intensive reading of a small corpus of texts is preferable.
The extensive and selective reading remains limited. The technology of printing press is not used by the early modern Jews for producing a mass of books and for substantially enlarging enlarging the "library".