Friday, June 25, 2010

Hebrew type cases, a Palmyrene wingding and a Judeo-Spanish listing of the 8 articles of faith.

Here's a sample of a printer's case of movable type for Hebrew, from a 1904 book called The practice of typography: modern methods of book composition by Theodore Low De Vinne.



Here's one from 1841:



1839:



Finally, sometimes I save the most interesting stuff for last for those who are still reading.

Here's an attempt to explain a strange character in a Palmyrene inscription in this book by analogy with abbreviations in rabbinical writing (using interesting typographical characters):



Here is S. Salome, the author's, pretentious yet touching finish to that book:




This is from the book Narrative of a journey from Constantinople to England (1828):



5 comments:

  1. It's interesting that the Ikkarim pertaining to the nature of God (i.e. his unity, his preexistence) have been left out. I always thought they were sort of redundant nowadays.

    Wait a second! where is Techiyat Hametim! Oy vey!

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  2. Interesting, huh? I have no idea where this guy got it; if he copied it exactly, edited it himself.

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  3. #1 in the Ladino ("Rashi" script) reads "...Y no a otro" =and it is not appropriate to pray to an other. The "Roman characters" version and the translation get it wrong.

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  4. Thank you. I have a hunch that it is deliberately wrong.

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  5. Of course "milot" is a misreading for "mitzvot" (the tzadi does look like a lamed), but somehow the translation came out right.

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