Andreas Berger

Early Modern and Renaissance History — University of Bern — Out now: "Stadt ohne Juden?"

[Andreas Berger @humilius]

Out now: "Stadt ohne Juden? Präsenz und Absenz in der Frühen Neuzeit"

https://t.co/UVvhpBpEhd @SchwabeVerlag

[Andreas Berger @humilius]

Now available online: "Bodies in Pain. Early Modern Suicide by Proxy"

https://t.co/zZ9NRxXluc @GermanHistSoc

[Andreas Berger @humilius]

@incunabula @atlasobscura @K_Chernick All this happened without the existence of a local Jewish community, but in direct exchange with Jewish scholars and with the help of Jewish publishers, proofreaders, typesetters, etc., who worked regularly in Basel printing houses.
6/6

[Andreas Berger @humilius]

@incunabula @atlasobscura @K_Chernick "'In Europe [...] you would need two conditions to exist [...]: one is the existence of a Jewish community, and the second is for that community not to be persecuted by the local authorities,' Avni explains."

The existence of a Jewish community was not a prerequisite for
1/x

[Andreas Berger @humilius]

@incunabula @atlasobscura @K_Chernick In 1578, a censored version of the Talmud was printed and in 1603 Jakob Abraham Pollak published the famous Ma’assebuch, a collection of Yiddish tales and legends.
5/6

[Andreas Berger @humilius]

@incunabula @atlasobscura @K_Chernick studied and reprinted in Basel. They introduced their Christian audience to the works of Jewish scholars such as Maimonides, David Kimhi, etc. Yet, many of these printings were not intended for a Christian audience, but explicitly for a Jewish readership.
4/6

[Andreas Berger @humilius]

@incunabula @atlasobscura @K_Chernick Christian Hebraists such as Conrad Pellikan, Sebastian Münster and later Johann Buxtorf lived and worked in Basel. Jewish scholars such as Elia Levita incessantly supplied them with Hebrew manuscripts, biblical commentaries (perushim) and the like, which they carefully
3/6

[Andreas Berger @humilius]

@incunabula @atlasobscura @K_Chernick Hebrew and Yiddish book printing in 16th century Europe. Basel had no Jewish community between 1397 and 1800. Nevertheless, Basel was one of the most productive cities in the German-speaking world as far as Hebrew and Yiddish letterpress printing was concerned.
2/6