Obj. ID: 38195  Torat Moshe by Moshe ben Yehosha Soncino, Izmir, 1737

This text was prepared by William Gross:

with MSS frontispiece
Izmir became an important center of Hebrew printing in the Ottoman Empire beginning in the mid-17th century. Its first printing house was founded in 1657 by Avraham b. Yedidya Gabbai, who published in Izmir in two distinct periods, from 1657-1660, and again from 1671-1675. After Gabbai left Izmir, all printing activity in that city ceased for the next fifty years.
The second period of Hebrew printing in Izmir was initiated by the printer of this volume, Yonah b. Ya’akov of Zalazitz, who had been printing in Istanbul since 1710. In 1728 he established a new printing house in Izmir, in partnership with a local resident R. David Hazan. This was actually a branch of the famous printing house in Constantinople, using the same letter blocks, and specializing in the publication of treatises by the learned sages of the city. This joint enterprise ended in 1739, which Hazan emigrated to Palestine. Within these 11 years, however, they managed to publish more than 30 books.