Obj. ID: 38404
Jewish printed books Tefillot Kol ha-Shanah kefi........Ashkenaz, Venice, 1749
This text was prepared by William Gross:
The use of depictions from earlier publications as a basis of new illustrations was a common phenomenon among artists of previous centuries. A prime example of this action is the frontispiece from this 1749 prayer book printed in Venice. Illustrations of women's religious duties are very rare in Hebrew printing. This delicate copper etching, showing the woman's obligations, is strikingly similar to another set of illustrations on a title page of a woman's prayer book printed in Amsterdam in 1705, displayed next to this volume. The artist has taken the same scenes and invested them with Italian flavor, using contemporary Italian costumes on the figures, changing the architecture to Italian style and even changing the Sabbath lamp being lit from a German type, as would be used in Holland, to the Italian type as seen here. This siddur contains a personal dedication from 1768. The condition of the book indicates that it was used often.
The Bragadin press was established in Venice in 1550 by Alvise Bragadin. This press continued as one of Venice’s leading Hebrew print-shops, issuing Hebrew titles in the 18th C under several generations of Bragadins (the last of whom was Alvise III). In the last decades of the The Seventeenth Century Hebrew Book, when this book was published, only the family name, Bragadin, or Nella Stamparia Bragadina appears on the title pages. Throughout the years, the output of the Bragadini press was considerable, and covered the gamut of Hebrew works. The press was somewhat unusual, however, in that the Bragadins themselves did not always take an active role in their printing-house, leaving its operation to other printers, and lending their name to other presses.