Solomon Proops

Bookseller Solomon Proops printed texts at various Amsterdam printing houses before establishing his own printing house in 1704, an establishment that became one of the most prolific and well-known Hebrew presses in eighteenth-century Europe. Indeed, some suggest that he printed as many as 235 books, including liturgical, halakhic, aggadic, ethical, historical, and kabbalistic works. In 1714, Proops embarked on printing a full edition of the Talmud. However, after he had produced the first tractate, competitors with a rabbinically approved monopoly on the printing of the Talmud halted his enterprise. Following Proops’s death, his business was continued by his sons, and the family continued to engage in printing until 1869. The printer’s mark used by Proops (which does not appear on all his works) depicts two hands, fingers spread in the priestly blessing, with the printer’s name written in Hebrew characters. Such a symbol was quite popular among printers and was used to indicate priestly descent and status (for example, Gershom ben Solomon ha-Kohen in early sixteenth-century Prague), just as others used a lion to indicate that they were descended from the Davidic dynasty.