Tombstone of Sarah, Wife of Joshua Soncino
Sarah Soncino, who died in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul, Turkey) in 1735, was a member of the prominent Soncino family, which established a printing press there in 1530, one in a long line of printing shops the family had already established in Soncino, Casamaggiore, Brescia, Barco, Fano, Pesaro, Ortona, Rimini, and Cesena in Italy, and Salonika, beginning in the late fifteenth century. The Soncino family published the first printed book in Hebrew in 1483 (the talmudic tractate Berakhot) and are considered pioneers of Hebrew publishing.
Credits
Tombstone of Sarah, the wife of Yehoshu’a Soncino, Kuzguncuk Cemetery, Istanbul. Lot # D-8, Stone # 99, September 14, 1735. Courtesy of the academic research site “A World Beyond: Jewish Cemeteries in Turkey, 1583–1990” of the Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center of Tel Aviv University. Previously published in: Minna Rozen, “Metropolis and Necropolis: The Cultivation of Social Status among the Jews of Istanbul in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” from Studies in the History of Istanbul Jewry, 1453–1923: A Journey through Civilizations (Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2015), figs. 26–27, pp. 229–230.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.
You may also like
Testament (Verona)
We the undersigned went in to visit R. David ben R. Moses Verlengo, may God preserve him, and found him ill, lying on his bed, but his words and speech were lucid and correct and orderly in his mouth…
Testament (Sarajevo)
The deed of will which is thus worded. In the community of Israel we have faithfully declared that we the undersigned are witnesses that it is a true and firm fact that the deceased lady, Sra. Rachel…
Testament (New York)
The Twentieth day of may in the yeare one Thousand and Seven hundred & Eight I Esther Browne of New York widdow Being Sick in Body, Butt of good and Perfect Memory, Thancks be to almighty god and…
Testament (Mannheim)
Knowing that with respect to money, if my husband will not agree, my last will and testament will not be valid, I request, for the sake of the One above, may His name be blessed forever and ever, he…
Testament (Skopje)
Whereas it is true and certain that the Lady Simcha—may she be blessed above women in the tent—daughter of the honorable and exalted R. Hefetz Conforte—may his soul repose in Paradise—summoned us, the…
Testament (Jerusalem)
Behold, an agency was sent to me from the two groups of the yeshiva heads coming to judgment, in whose hand was a written deed, signed by fit and proper witnesses, that the widow, the aforesaid lady…
You may also like
Testament (Verona)
We the undersigned went in to visit R. David ben R. Moses Verlengo, may God preserve him, and found him ill, lying on his bed, but his words and speech were lucid and correct and orderly in his mouth…
Testament (Sarajevo)
The deed of will which is thus worded. In the community of Israel we have faithfully declared that we the undersigned are witnesses that it is a true and firm fact that the deceased lady, Sra. Rachel…
Testament (New York)
The Twentieth day of may in the yeare one Thousand and Seven hundred & Eight I Esther Browne of New York widdow Being Sick in Body, Butt of good and Perfect Memory, Thancks be to almighty god and…
Testament (Mannheim)
Knowing that with respect to money, if my husband will not agree, my last will and testament will not be valid, I request, for the sake of the One above, may His name be blessed forever and ever, he…
Testament (Skopje)
Whereas it is true and certain that the Lady Simcha—may she be blessed above women in the tent—daughter of the honorable and exalted R. Hefetz Conforte—may his soul repose in Paradise—summoned us, the…
Testament (Jerusalem)
Behold, an agency was sent to me from the two groups of the yeshiva heads coming to judgment, in whose hand was a written deed, signed by fit and proper witnesses, that the widow, the aforesaid lady…