Obj. ID: 37379 Etz Shatul by Yosef Albo, Venice, 1618
sub-set tree:
This text was prepared by William Gross:
A commentary by R. Gedaliah ben Solomon Zalman Lipschuetz (16th – 17th C) on R. Joseph Albo’s Ikkarim (a 15th-century philosophical work on the principles of Judaism). A student and relative of R. Meir ben Gedaliah of Lublin (Maharam Lublin, 1558 – 1616), Lipschuetz traveled from Poland to Prague obtaining approbations for Etz Shatul. After publishing the work in Venice, he continued to Eretz Israel, taking up residence in Jerusalem. He later traveled to the Balkans as an emissary of the Jerusalem community seeking financial assistance.
Among the fourteen rabbis who signed approbations for Etz Shatul are R. Solomon Ephraim Luntshits (1550 – 1619) and R. Isaiah ha-Levi Horowitz (c. 1565 – 1630); R. Judah Aryeh (Leone) Modena contributed a verse in praise of the work; the editor R. Abraham Haver Tov ben Solomon Hayyim is represented by an epilogue.
Title page with the Bragadin architectural frame. Tailpiece comprised of a crowned rooster facing seven fowl, surrounded by the verse, “As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem” (Isaiah 31:5).
Decorative frames enclose the first word of every ma’amar. Descriptive diagrams appear in in the Shorashim (one of the two commentaries offered by Lipschuetz) and the addenda.
In 1550 Alvise Bragadin established a Hebrew press in Venice, thus ending a brief monopoly in Hebrew printing in Venice enjoyed by Guistiniani (after the closing of the Bomberg press). 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). 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.