Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures Online

Get access Subject: Jewish Studies

Being an encyclopedia on book cultures rather than book contents, this work places textuality and materiality of the book in the center of its investigation. The singularity of the Jewish book can only be understood in full if it is studied in its broader cultural and intercultural context. This encyclopedia does that by focusing on the paleographic features, intended function, cultural significance, readership, acceptance, and design of particular books and genres, as well as the producer-consumer relations involved in the making and circulating of books. It covers more than 2000 years of Jewish book cultures from all corners of the earth.

The Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures Online will appear before the print edition and features full-text searchable, richly illustrated articles. The print edition will be released after all online content is complete and will include one introductory volume, dealing with the fundamental research questions in the wide field of Jewish Book History, followed by three alphabetically organized volumes, offering a classic entry-by-entry encyclopedia, with articles of greatly varying length. The online work reflects this framework and presents the introductory essays as a separate, but strongly intertwined, section.

More information Brill.com

Tradition and Change in the Transition from Manuscript to Print

(12,948 words)

Author(s): del Barco, Javier
The invention of movable type leading to the mechanized production of books competed with hand-written books, before mostly replacing them. This chapter deals with the tension between tradition and change that resulted from introducing the printing press into the production of Hebrew books and how the new dynamics of production, sale, and marketing may have helped determine which traditional features were maintained and which were replaced by new innovations. ⸙The Impact of the Printing Press on the Production of Hebrew BooksThe invention of movable-type printing in the mid…
Source: Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures Online
Date: 2023-01-31

Translations

(7,463 words)

Author(s): Fontaine, Resianne | Idelson-Shein, Iris | Shavit, Zohar | Weissbrod, Rachel
1. Medieval PeriodBetween c. 1050 and 1500 Jewish scholars in Spain, Provence, and Italy translated a large number of texts in the fields of philosophy, science, and medicine from Arabic or Latin into Hebrew. This transfer of knowledge of non-Jewish origin gave rise to the flourishing of science and philosophy in the medieval Jewish communities in Christian lands, which brought about a major change in the intellectual landscape of these communities.Arabic into HebrewAs evidenced by the extensive table of the medieval Hebrew translations drawn up by Mauro Zonta in 2…
Source: Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures Online
Date: 2023-11-20

Tsene-rene

(1,302 words)

Author(s): Singer-Brehm, Elisabeth
The Tsene-rene, a Yiddish adaptation of the Bible by Jacob ben Isaac Ashkenazi of Janów, became a major bestseller. Often mischaracterized as a mere "women's Bible," its loose retelling of biblical stories and combination of moralistic and didactic elements have delighted readers around the world for centuries.⸙Scholars and bibliographers of old Yiddish literature largely agree that no Yiddish book has enjoyed a greater readership than the biblical paraphrase Ḥamišah ḥumšei Torah be-lašon Aškenaz – Ṣeʾenah u-reʾenah benot Ṣiyon, or Tsene-rene for short. Indeed, more people …
Source: Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures Online
Date: 2023-11-23