Chabad Puts Earliest-Known Hebrew Print on Display
About 539 years ago, Jewish printer Abraham ben Garton ben Isaac produced a version of Rashi’s commentary on the Torah using moveable type. Two pages from this rare book are now on display at the Chabad-Lubavitch Library in Crown Heights.
From the New York Daily News:
For a brief moment in 1475, a Hebrew printing press opened up in Regio di Calabria in southern Italy. More than 500 years later, two leaves from a book produced in that ancient shop have found their way to Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
“This is the earliest Hebrew book, dated, printed,” explained Rabbi Shalom DovBer Levine, director and curator at The Library of Agudas Chasidei Chabad-Lubavitch. Some printed Hebrew texts are believed to have appeared as early as 1469, but none of those books are dated. The print date on this edition is unmistakable, Levine says.
The letters on the weathered and worn pages were arranged in neat rows and published at Abraham ben Garton ben Isaac’s shop in Italy. The printer used moveable wooden type to create a standalone version of Rashi, Rabbi Solomon Isaac’s commentary on the Torah. The printer would arrange the letters page by page until the frame filled up. He’d make several hundred copies, then break the type apart to create the next page.
“We don’t know much about this printer,” Levine said. “He is remembered for his name and the date on his book.” Rashi’s commentary was the only book published in that print shop. Now, the scholar’s work is printed in nearly every edition of the Jewish Bible.
The pages are part of Ginzei Seforim, an exhibition of books at the library that was opened to the public this week and will remain on show for one year.
Click here to continue reading at the NY Daily News.
The Chabad library contains more than a quarter million rare books and manuscripts, many of which are only available to scholars and are off-limits to the public.
The library is located at 770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn N.Y. It is open 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Friday.
