Torah, Neviʼim u-Khetuvim: Biblia Hebraica. Vol. I

1700

Shoults Lb 1700 B

[Amsterdam: Sumptibus & mandatis Societatis]

This volume is part of a multi-volume set forming the Biblia Hebraica, a 1705 reprint of the original edition by Joseph Athias (1635-1700), a learned Jewish Rabbi and printer. This edition was prepared for the press by Everardus van der Hooght (1642?-1716), whose later editions form the basis of all the modern editions. By this time, printing not only standardized the halakhah (the entire body of Jewish law and tradition comprising the laws of the Bible, and the oral law as transcribed in the legal portion of the Talmud), but also assisted the dissemination of kabbalah (that mystical component in Jewish traditions that deal with the essence of God). The Bible has numbered verses, Latin subject headings in the margin, and vowel signs and points. Understandably, the inclusion of the latter made type cutting, composing and printing a very complex activity.