Obj. ID: 37355  Kol Ya'akov by Ya'akov Koppel ben Tzvi Margalit me-Vladimira, Venice, 1658

This text was prepared by William Gross:

Brief homilies from the Talmud with a lament for the victims of the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648-1649 by R. Ya'akov Koppel b. Tzvi Margolioth (d.c.1673).
Title page framed by double row of florets.
The author was a rabbi in Vladimir, Volhynia Poland, where he suffered personally in the massacres. He writes here and elsewhere that he was taken captive and redeemed by the Jews of Constantinople. The community members were able to ransom him, but they did not have enough money to ransom his family. The cruel thieves set a date by which time he was obligated to collect funds from the Jewish communities to redeem the rest of his family. He traveled to Italy for this purpose, and printed this booklet in order to earn money for the same cause.
The Vendramin Hebrew press was established in 1630 by Giovanni Vendramin, who thereby broke the monopoly enjoyed by the Bragadin family in Venice. The press eventually joined with that of Bragadin, however, and the combined presses continue to operate well into the 18th C.