Obj. ID: 35336
Jewish printed books Darchei No'am by Shlomo di Oliveira, Amsterdam, 1688
The following description was prepared by William Gross:
Five books by Solomon de Oliveyra, Rabbi of Amsterdam, Bound together: · Igeret…Ayelet Ahavim - Morals in verse and rhyme. Amsterdam, [1665]. · Sharsherot Gavlut - Rhyming roots. Amsterdam, [1665]. · Darkei Noam - rules for Talmud study, with Tuv Ta'am on the ta'amei hamikrah (tropes), and Darkei Hashem - index for the 613 mitzvot. Amsterdam, [1688-1689]. · Hes-Haym, Arvore de Vidas (Etz Chaim) - Hebrew-Aramaic-Portuguese lexicon. Amsterdam, [1682-1683]. · Yad Lashon - Dal Sefatayim, Livro da gramatica Hebrayca & Chaldayca, two compositions on Hebrew and Aramaic grammar. Amsterdam, [1689].
All the books were printed in the printing press of David de Castro Tartas. All the books are first editions, some were not printed again.This is the only edition of a small work on Talmudic terminology by R. Solomon ben David de Oliveyra (d. 1708). Alphabetical listing of terms. Printed after the text of Darchei No’am is Tuv Ta’am ve-Da’at on Hebrew cantillation and the fourteen kellalim of Maimonides concerning the mitzvoth. Also included is Darchei ha-Shem, an alphabetical list of the 613 commandments by Oliveyra.
Architectural title page with columns wrapped with grape vines.
Oliverya was a rabbi, philologist, and poet. Born in Lisbon, he lived most of his life in Amsterdam, where he was a teacher and member of the rabbinical council.
The volume was published by David de Castro Tartas, a Portuguese-Jewish printer in Amsterdam. David was one of three sons of Portuguese "New Christians" who had escaped from Bragança, and settled, under the Catholic names Cristóvão Luís and Isabel da Paz in the French town of Tartas. In 1640 they moved to Amsterdam to live freely as Jews, retaining the surname "Tartas." David's older brother Isaac de Castro Tartas (ca. 1623-1647) stayed only 1 year in Amsterdam, emigrated to Brazil, and later was martyred in Lisbon.
David de Castro Tartas started as a typesetter in the printing house of Menasseh Ben Israel, where his name is mentioned in 1647. He later appears in 1662 as owner of his own press and in 1678 as a member of the Amsterdam Printers' Guild. His press competed with that of Uri Phoebus Halevi and the press of Joseph Athias.
The book is bound with four others.