Print Culture and The Jews

Catalog description

What is a Jewish book? Books read by Jews encompassed a wide range of text, and the content and materiality of these texts changed over time. In this course we will focus on the early modern period, when the printing press first developed, and the tremendous impact that this new 'print culture' had on Jewish life, learning, and communities. Topics include the shift from manuscript to print, the printing of the Talmud, male and female literacy, new religious and vernacular texts, censorship, life in the print shop, translations, Christian Hebraism, and the development of an international Jewish community of readers.