Haggadah

Joseph Athias was a merchant and book printer in Amsterdam. A Jewish refugee from Portugal, he lived for a while in Germany before settling in Amsterdam around 1654. There, he established a Hebrew print shop, where he published some 450 books. In 1661, he was the first Jewish printer to be accepted as a member of the Amsterdam Bookprinters Guild. He is best known for his edition of the Hebrew Bible, the first to use Arabic numerals for numbering chapters and verses, which he prepared in consultation with Christian scholars from the University of Utrecht. He also produced Christian Bibles for the non-Jewish market.

Nothing is known about the early years of Abraham bar Jacob, who as a young Christian pastor left the Rhine region and settled in Amsterdam. There, he took the name Abraham bar Jacob after converting to Judaism. Bar Jacob became a well-known and influential engraver, printmaker, and artist. His works include frontispieces and engravings for books printed by Amsterdam printing houses, an amulet for women in childbirth, and possibly an engraved portrait of Rabbi Isaac Aboab. Among his most famous works is the Amsterdam Haggadah of 1695, which includes a detailed map of the Holy Land. In his later works, bar Jacob’s signature has been obliterated or concealed, possibly because he was a convert.