Printing, Hebrew Book Culture and Sefer Ḥasidim

Printing, Hebrew Book Culture and Sefer Ḥasidim Joseph A. Skloot Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2017 © 2017 Joseph A. Skloot All rights reserved ABSTRACT Printing, Hebrew Book Culture and Sefer Ḥasidim Joseph A. Skloot This dissertation is a contribution to the fields of the history of the Hebrew book and early modern Jewish cultural history. It is a study of Sefer Ḥasidim, a text that originated in the medieval Rhineland, in its first two printed editions (of 1538 and 1581, respectively). By analyzing these editions closely, and by comparing them to their manuscript antecedents, it is possible to determine how the work of printing changed Sefer Ḥasidim and how printing shaped readers’ understanding of the text. These investigations advance the argument that the printing of Hebrew books was a creative act, not merely a process of reproduction and dissemination. Like all creative productions, moreover, these editions can be read as witnesses to the particular social and cultural contexts from which they emerged—in this case, a period of upheaval in Jewish life and European society. Moreover, the varied cast of characters who produced these editions—printers, editors, proofreaders, press workers, among others—were influenced by commercial, intellectual and religious interests unique to the sixteenth century and to Italy. These interests left their mark on the texts of Sefer Ḥasidim that emerged from their presses (in the form of censorship and emendations), as well as their associated paratexts (e.g. prefaces, tables of contents and introduc- tions). Part one of this dissertation focuses on the first printed edition of Sefer Ḥasidim, produced by a group of Jewish silk entrepreneurs who called themselves “the partners” in the city of Bologna. It contains two chapters. Chapter one examines who the partners were and their social position within Bolognese Jewry, as well as the legal and institutional framework that regulated the production of Hebrew books in Bologna. Chapter two is a close reading of their edition of Sefer Ḥasidim and a comparison to the extant Sefer Ḥasidim manuscripts. This chapter highlights three areas where the partners innovated: They ascribed the authorship of Sefer Ḥasidim to the medieval pietist R. Judah he-Ḥasid; they prefaced the text with a lengthy table of contents; and they censored the text to eliminate a number of references to Christianity and Christians. Part two focuses on the second edition of Sefer Ḥasidim. It contains three chapters. Chap- ter three examines the people who created this edition: the Christian printer Ambrosius Froben of Basel and his Jewish and Christian associates. Chapter four focuses on the many paratexts that accompanied Froben’s edition. These documents present Sefer Ḥasidim as a canonical work of scripture and aggadah (rabbinic lore) intended for young students. Chapter five focuses on the text of Sefer Ḥasidim in Froben’s edition and the emendations Froben and his editors introduced. The chapter highlights three kinds of emendations: censorship of anti-Christian passages; the re- moval of phrases in languages other than Hebrew; and the introduction of punctuation and gloss- es. Taken together, these emendations create the impression that Sefer Ḥasidim was a “classic” of far greater import than it may have had at the time of its composition. This dissertation closes with a conclusion that describes how the data contained in the previous chapters might be useful for students of the history of the book and Jewish modernity. Table of Contents List of Illustrations ii Acknowledgements iii Notes on the Text ix Introduction 1 Part 1 18 Chapter 1: The Partners of Bologna 19 Chapter 2: Manuscripts, Printing and Textual Change 59 Part 2 101 Chapter 3: Ambrosius Froben of Basel and his Hebrew Print Shop 102 Chapter 4: The Second Printed Edition of Sefer Ḥasidim: Overview and Paratexts 121 Chapter 5: The Text of the Second Printed Edition of Sefer Ḥasidim 179 Conclusion 218 Bibliography 225 Appendices 259 "i List of Illustrations Figure 1: A Page of the Table of Contents in MS Cambridge Add. 379.2 (13th/14th Century) Figure 2: A Page of R. Abraham b. Moses ha-Cohen’s Table of Contents (Bologna, 1538) Figure 3: Title Page of the Partners’ edition of Sefer Ḥasidim (Bologna, 1538) Figure 4: Title Page of Tractate Berakhot in the Bomberg Talmud (Venice, 1520) Figure 5: Title Page of Froben’s edition of Sefer Ḥasidim (Basel, 1581) Figure 6: A Page from Hasdai Crescas’ introduction to Or Adonai (Ferrara, 1555) "ii Acknowledgements As a child, I would peruse the shelves of my grandfather’s library with curiosity and wonder. My grandfather, Rabbi Samuel Volkman, of blessed memory, was a scholar of Hebrew texts and human relations, and an avid reader. He read widely in poetry, the sciences and the arts, not to mention, biblical exegesis and religious philosophy. Books lined his and my grandmother Sally’s shelves, sometimes three rows deep. “How could one person read so much?” I often wondered. “Did my grandparents’ apart- ment contain the sum of all human knowledge?” Two of my grandfather’s books always caught my eye: The large, leather-bound, gold- embossed, two-volume set of the Midrash Rabbah, in its Vilna printing (1855). They sat on ei- ther end of a tall shelf in the living room. “What are those books?” I asked my grandfather when I was little. “They hold the shelf up,” he jokingly replied. I think about that tongue-in-cheek remark now as I write this dissertation—dedicated to his memory and his example of humanism and humaneness. Books like those in my grandfather’s library not only hold our shelves up, so often in Jewish history, they’ve held our lives up too. “The books of the Jews verily were their life.” So wrote Fritz Bamberger, of blessed memory, my uncle Michael’s father, in a small book of quotations entitled Books are the Best Things. He produced the book for the Society of Jewish Bibliophiles in 1962.1 I may have en- 1 Fritz Bamberger, Books are the Best Things (Cincinnati: Society of Jewish Bibliophiles, 1962) 3. "iii tered the world shortly before Fritz left it, but, his presence has always loomed large. I grew up ever-aware of his heroism, leadership and scholarship; his escape from Nazi Germany with his wife and children and a remarkable library of rare books—among the world’s largest collection of Spinoziana; his studies (alongside a young Franz Kafka) at and leadership of Berlin’s Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums; his work as executive director of Esquire maga- zines; his years as professor of Jewish intellectual history at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and a visiting faculty member at Columbia. While I found my way to graduate school and to the field of early modern Jewish intellectual and cultural history on my own, it is hard not to see Fritz’s hand directing my choices from above. The concerns that motivate my scholarship are closely related to his: Judaism’s encounter with modernity; the transition from medieval to modern; the figures of Spinoza and Mendelssohn; and of course, the history of Jewish books. In addition to my grandfather, I also dedicate this dissertation to Fritz’s memory and express my gratitude to my uncle Michael for sharing his legacy with me. During my sophomore year at Princeton, I took a seminar with Susannah Heschel, who was visiting for a semester. In it, I learned that the ideas and individuals that were the focus of many a dinner table conversation in our family—the Prophets, emancipation, Zionism—were legitimate fields of academic study. I wrote a paper for that seminar on the Zionist philosopher Ahad Ha’am and, on my father’s suggestion, sent it to the then President of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Rabbi David Ellenson. Since then, Rabbi Ellenson has been my mentor and my guide. His expansive understanding of rabbinic tradition and his use of in- terdisciplinary methodologies has been a model to which I aspire. His encouragement led me to "iv pursue this doctorate at Columbia. This is all the more special because Rabbi Ellenson pursued his rabbinical studies at HUC-JIR and graduate studies at Columbia under Fritz Bamberger’s tutelage. This dissertation is therefore also dedicated to David, in gratitude for his wisdom and his friendship. As a child of Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Columbia’s storied campus has always had a hold on my imagination. I count myself blessed to have been accepted to Columbia’s graduate program in History and to have studied with my advisor and mentor Elisheva Carlebach. I am continuously grateful to Professor Carlebach for her piercing insight, her meticulous eye and her constant support and encouragement especially at the most difficult moments. My encounter with the academic study of Judaism, as well as historical scholarship, be- gan at Princeton and it was there that I studied with extraordinary teachers who continue to be generous interlocutors: John Gager, Anthony Grafton, Susannah Heschel, Olga Litvak and Peter Schäfer. Professor Grafton advised my first foray into historical research—my undergraduate thesis on Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz—and his capacious grasp of diverse fields, including especially, the history of the book, has left an indelible imprint on my understanding of history and this dissertation, as will be readily evident throughout the text. At Princeton, I was also lucky to find myself in Olga Litvak’s classroom. In the years since, Olga has inspired me with the creativity and erudition of her scholarship, advised me pro- fessionally and personally, joined me on maverick culinary explorations, and been the best of friends.

Load more