17th c
A01=Joshua Teplitsky
amsterdam
Author_Joshua Teplitsky
Category=DS
Category=NHB
Category=NHTB
commerce
culture
david oppenheim
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
holy roman empire
jewish history
jewish library
jewish literature
lithuania
poland
political philosophy
politics
prague
rabbi
rabbinical studies
religious discourse
seventeenth century
talmudic literature
venice
Product details
- ISBN 9780300234909
- Weight: 635g
- Dimensions: 156 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 26 Feb 2019
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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David Oppenheim (1664–1736), chief rabbi of Prague in the early eighteenth century, built an unparalleled collection of Jewish books and manuscripts, all of which have survived and are housed in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. His remarkable collection testifies to the myriad connections Jews maintained with each other across political borders, and the contacts between Christians and Jews that books facilitated. From contact with the great courts of European nobility to the poor of Jerusalem, his family ties brought him into networks of power, prestige, and opportunity that extended across Europe and the Mediterranean basin. Containing works of law and literature alongside prayer and poetry, his library served rabbinic scholars and communal leaders, introduced old books to new readers, and functioned as a unique source of personal authority that gained him fame throughout Jewish society and beyond. The story of his life and library brings together culture, commerce, and politics, all filtered through this extraordinary collection. Based on the careful reconstruction of an archive that is still visited by scholars today, Joshua Teplitsky’s book offers a window into the social life of Jewish books in early modern Europe.
Joshua Teplitsky is assistant professor of history at Stony Brook University. He specializes in the history of the Jews in Europe in the early modern period and in the study of books and media. He lives in New York City.
