IV. Type and fleurons

[Chamishah Chumshei Torah]. – Anvers: Christophe Plantin, 1565. In-4.

Beginning in 1564, Plantin published a few dozen books in Hebrew, benefiting notably from the printing tools of printer Daniel Bomberg (1483-1553), who had moved from Antwerp to Venice.  A cousin of Bomberg, an associate of Plantin, had lent him these invaluable punches and matrices in 1563.

   The first Hebrew book, a grammar published by the Officina Plantiniana in 1564, was followed by a triad of Bibles from 1565 to 1566. Plantin first printed a quarto edition, and instead of redistributing the type, he rearranged the composition to produce the octavo edition; the type was then used a third time for the 16mo edition. This recycling reduced production costs.

   The title page is presented within an architectural gate, a custom that may have originated in the Venetian edition of Bomberg (1527). The tradition became so widespread that the biblical Hebrew word for gate, sha’ar, also had the meaning ‘title page’ in modern Hebrew (sha’r-blat in Yiddish).

Cultura Fonds: LC 134 (in-4)

Mazarine: 8° 49740 (in-8)

Mazarine: 8° 36651-3 (in-8)

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