Hebrew Woodblock Type

Hebrew drawer, type shop, Cooper Union (photo credit: Brice McGowen)

The type shop here at Cooper Union has some Hebrew woodblocks, not enough to make complete sentences and not a large variety to even make some words, but still are really nice 100 year old blocks. I printed a few of them, just to have a specimen of some Hebrew type.

History of Jewish Hebrew Printing

From the First Illustrated Printed Haggadah, Prague, 1526

The Jewish Encyclopedia's Typography entry:

The art of printing. The invention of printing was welcomed by the Jews as "the art of writing with many pens." From the time of the earlier printers reference is made to their craft as "holy work" ("'Abodat ha-Ḳodesh"). It may here be treated under the two headings of history and characteristics.

I. History:

The history of Hebrew printing is divided into five stages, of which only a sketch can be attempted in this place, many of the details being already treated under the names of prominent printers or presses. The five stages of Hebrew typography are as follows: I., 1475-1500, incunabula in southern Europe; II., 1500-42, spread to north and east; III., 1542-1627, supremacy of Venice; IV., 1627-1732, hegemony of Amsterdam; V., 1732-1900, modern period, in which Frankfort, Vienna, and, more recently, Wilna and Warsaw have come to the front. For the most part Hebrew printing has been done by Jews, but the printing of Bibles has been undertaken also by Christian typographers, especially at the university towns of Europe. These productions, for lack of space, are for the most part to be neglected in the following sketch.

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From a Passover Haggadah, Amsterdam, 1695