Obj. ID: 35508
Jewish printed books Mahzor im Kavanot..., Amsterdam, 1768
This text was prepared by William Gross:
Machzor with Kavanat HaPaytan "According to Ashkenazi tradition and [the traditions] of the rest of the holy congregations", with Yiddish translation and explanations. Amsterdam, [1768]. Printed by the Proops brothers.
This volume is part of a set of 9, making a complete Machzor. This is the volume for Pesach. The frontispiece is as in an 1689 publication and the volume is bound in a beautiful contemporary gold tooled binding dated two years after the printing of the book.
The press set up by Solomon Proops became the most famous of all the presses operating in Amsterdam in the 18th century, apart from the Menasseh ben Israel press. Solomon's father Joseph came to Amsterdam from Poznan. Solomon Proops was initially involved in the bookselling trade, and in 1677 was admitted to the Amsterdam Guild of Booksellers, Printers and Bookbinders. In 1704 he set up his own press, which was to become the longest operating and most productive of all the Jewish presses in Europe in the 18th C. He acquired the fame of a printer who produced beautiful books that could be bought at a reasonable price.
Solomon Proops died in 1734, and his three sons Joseph, Jacob and Abraham inherited his press. They were too young to run the press themselves, however, taking over operations only when they reached maturity. Initially Solomon’s sons refrained from listing their names in the works they printed. Instead they identified themselves as “Orphans of the late Solomon Proops”. They only started to place their names on title pages of their works in 1751.