Obj. ID: 37389  Beit Yisrael by Ya'akov ben Shlomo Ibn Chaviv, Venice, 1625

This text was prepared by William Gross:

"Ein Ya'akov", a collection of aggadot in the Talmud from tractates Yevamot-Niddah compiled by R. Jacob ben Solomon ibn Habib (c. 1445 – c. 1515). First printed in Salonika, 1516, this edition is of great significance because it bears the first engraved copperplate title page in a Hebrew book.
This elaborate title page shows a pillared architectural structure with a cartouche at the top containing a helmeted figure. Two additional figures recline atop the pediment. Four vignettes appear at the bottom, each with a biblical verse. They are, from left to right: “[Joseph] was feeding the flock with his brothers” (Genesis 37:2); “Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph” (cf. Genesis 41:14); “Let David, I beseech you, stand before me” (I Samuel 16:22); and “Behold, he keeps the sheep” (I Samuel 16:11). Yaari understands these depictions as referring to the financiers of the volume, R. David and R. Joseph ben Isaac ibn Nahmias. The first two vignettes refer to Joseph, the last two to David. The figure at the top may represent the Nahmias family.
This edition of the Beit Yisrael is also significant for its inclusion of the concordance Beit Lehem Yehudah by R. Leone (Judah Aryeh) ben Isaac Modena.
Beit Yisrael was originally published as Ein Ya’akov, the name by which it is again known today. That title, however, was among the books proscribed and burned together with the Talmud after the Pope’s bull of August, 1553, and subsequently placed on the Index librorum prohibitorum. When the Council of Trent (1564) permitted the publication of the Talmud and other previously banned books, such texts had to be published under different names. When published as a single volume Ein Ya’akov was re-titled Ein Yisrael; when published as two volumes, the first volume was appeared as Ein Yisrael while the second was frequently entitled Beit Yisrael.
In 1550 Alvise Bragadin established a Hebrew press in Venice, thus ending a brief monopoly in Hebrew printing in Venice enjoyed by Guistiani (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.