[1] J.S. da Silva Rosa, David Montezinos, de stichter der ‘Livraria D. Montezinos’ (1 Thebet 5589-5674) (Amsterdam, 1914), 4, writes that Montezinos bought the book from a street pedlar while observing the fire in the Floratheater in Amsterdam. This theatre, in the Amstelstraat, burned down in 1902: see J. van de Kamp and J. van der Wijk, Koosjer Nederlands (Amsterdam, 2006), 158. S. Seeligmann, “Über die erste jüdische Ansiedelung in Amsterdam,” in Mitteilungen zur jüdischen Volkskunde (ed. M. Grunwald; Breslau, 1906), 7, indicates that Montezinos acquired the Kuranten shortly (kürzlich) before the time of writing (1902); see also ibid, 7-8; M. Weinreich, “Di bobe fun der yidishe prese,” in Di Tsukunft (1928), 679. David Montezinos donated his collection, including the book containing the Kuranten, to Ets Haim in 1889. After his death in 1916 the book remained in the library, surviving World War II. At some point in the 1970’s, however, when it was transferred with other books from the Ets Haim library to the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem, it disappeared without trace. Photos and photocopies of the papers can be found in the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana of the Universiteit van Amsterdam, while microfilms are kept in the Municipal Archives in Amsterdam and several libraries.
[2] L. Fuks and R. G. Fuks-Mansfeld, Hebrew Typography in the Northern Netherlands 1595-1815 (Leiden: Brill, 1984-1987), 234-247.
[3] J.I. Israel, “De Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden tot omstreeks 1750 – Demografie en economische activiteit,” in Geschiedenis van de joden in Nederland (ed. J. C. H. Blom; Amsterdam 1995), 100-103.
[4] Israel, “Republiek,” 111; Hubert P.H. Nusteling, “The Jews in the Republic of the United Provinces: Origin, Numbers and Dispersion,” in Dutch Jewry: Its History and Secular Culture (1500-2000) (ed. J. Israel and R. Salverda; Leiden/Boston/Köln: Brill, 2002), 53.
[5] Israel, “Republiek,” 112.
[6] M. Schneider and J. Hemels, De Nederlandse krant 1618-1978 (Baarn, 1979), 23-24.
[7] Schneider and Hemels, Nederlandse krant, 25-30.
[8] Schneider and Hemels, Nederlandse krant, 40-45; Folke Dahl, Dutch Corantos 1618-1650: A Bibliography Illustrated with 334 Facsimile Reproductions of Corantos Printed 1618-1625 and an Introductory Essay on 17th Century Stop Press News (Göteborg, 1946), 36, 57.
[9] Schneider and Hemels, Nederlandse krant, 46, 54; Folke Dahl, Amsterdam, Earliest Newspaper Centre of Western Europe (’s-Gravenhage, 1939) (offprint from Het Boek 25, 1939); D.H. Couvée, “Van couranten en courantiers uit de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw,” in Het model voor de uitgever, August 1951, 11; O. Lankhorst, “Newspapers in the Netherlands in the Seventeenth Century,” in The Politics of Information in Early Modern Europe (ed. B. Dooley and S. Baron; London/New York, 2001), 153. On French newspapers, see E. Hatin, Les gazettes de Hollande et la presse clandestine aux XVIIième et XVIIIième siècles (Paris, 1865) (reprint Geneva, 1969); La Gazette d’Amsterdam: Miroir de l’Europe au XVIIIe siècle (ed. Pierre Rétat; Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2001). On English newspapers, see Folke Dahl, Amsterdam, Cradle of English Newspapers (London: The Bibliographical Society, 1949); idem, A Bibliography of English Corantos and Periodical Newsbooks 1620-1642 (London: The Bibliographical Society, 1952).
[10] Schneider and Hemels, Nederlandse krant, 54; W.P. Sautijn Kluit, “De Amsterdamsche Courant,” in Bijdragen voor Vaderlandsche Geschiedenis en Oudheidkunde 1868, 209-292 (reprinted as a brochure, no publisher, pp. 1-84); idem, “De Haarlemsche Courant,” in Handelingen en Meededeelingen van de Maatschappij der Nederlandsche Letterkunde (1872-1873) (reprinted as a brochure, Leiden: Brill, 1873), 3-132.
[11] Y. Kaplan, “De joden in de Republiek tot omstreeks 1750,” in Geschiedenis van de joden in Nederland (ed. J.C.H. Blom; Amsterdam, 1995), 156.
[12] For the Gazeta, see Shmuel Schnitzer, “Uvekhol zot habekhora shayekhet la-‘Gazeta’,” Kesher 2 (1987), 3-10; C.P. Burger Jr., “De Gazeta de Amsterdam,” in Het Boek 12 (1923), 57-74. All extant issues of the Gazeta are held in the Amsterdam Municipal Archives.
[13] Fuks and Fuks-Mansfeld, Hebrew Typography, 339-348.
[14] According to Shatzky, nays fartseyler (news distributors) were distributed in the synagogue in Amsterdam in 1776: Y. Shatzky, “Di letste shprotsungen fun der yidisher shprakh un literatur in Holland,” in YIVO-bleter 10, 253-254. While L. Fuks, “Joodse pers in de Nederlanden, 1674-1940,” in Joodse pers in de Nederlanden en in Duitsland: Jüdische Presse in den Niederlanden und in Deutschland, 1674-1940 (ed. W. Scheur; Amsterdam, 1969), 8, assumes that Shatzky is referring to newspapers, according to Shatzky the nays fartseyler were a kind of advertising leaflets distributed by publishers.
[15] Kaplan, “Joden”, 162; Fuks and Fuks-Mansfeld, Hebrew Typography, 183-184.
[16] Moushe mentions his place of birth in a book he published while a printer himself: see M. Steinschneider, Catalogus Librorum Hebraeorum in Bibliotheca Bodeleiana (Berlin, 1852-1860), nr. 2623: Birkat Hamazon (Amsterdam, 1694).
[17] Fuks and Fuks-Mansfeld, Hebrew Typography, 237-249; Marion Aptroot, Bible Translation as Cultural Reform: The Amsterdam Yiddish Bibles (1678-1679) (Oxford, 1989), Ch. 1; E. Timm, “Blitz and Witzenhausen,” in Studies in Jewish Culture in Honour of Chone Shmeruk (ed. I. Bartal; Jerusalem, 1993), 39-66.
[18] Kuranten (Dutch: couranten) signifies “newspapers” in the plural. The use of the plural couranten for the name of a newspaper is unusual in Dutch: see, for example, the Amsterdamse Courant and Haarlemse Courant. Perhaps Halevi, the first printer of the Kuranten, was unaware of the meaning of the word; he may have confused it with Tijdingen (“Reports”), also a common name for newspapers during this period. De Castro Tartas probably realized the peculiarity of the name Kuranten and changed it to Kurant. In this article, by Kuranten I refer to the papers published by both printers.
[19] D.H. Couvée, “De nieuwsgaring van de eerste courantiers,” in Pers, propaganda en openbare mening: Een bundel opstellen aangeboden aan professor dr. Kurt Baschwitz (Leiden: Brill, 1956), 26-40.
[20] Fuks and Fuks-Mansfeld, Hebrew Typography, 388.
[21] J.I. Israel, European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism 1550-1750 (London, 1998), 125.
[22] L. Fuks and R.G. Fuks-Mansfeld, “Historiography in the Netherlands in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” in Salo Wittmayer Baron Jubilee Volume 1 (ed. Saul Lieberman and Arthur Hyman; New York, 1974), 433-466.
[23] Fuks and Fuks-Mansfeld, Hebrew Typography, 384-388; I.H. van Eeghen, “Moses Abrahamsz, boekdrukker in Amsterdam,” in Studia Rosenthaliana VI 1 (1972), 58-64.
[24] Fuks and Fuks-Mansfeld, Hebrew Typography, 344-346.
[25] Although some titles of papers now lost have been suggested, it is unlikely that these were real newspapers. Shatzky shows in Baylage 3 the title page of the Naye Tsaytung from Prague, 1716: Y. Shatzky, Zamlbukh lekoved dem tsvey hundert un fuftsikstn yoyvl fun der Yidisher prese, 1686-1936 (New York: YIVO, 1937); see also note 15.
[26] Both are kept in the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York; a copy of number 2 is also kept in the Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek in Frankfurt am Main: see Y. Rivkind, “A naye umbakante Amsterdamer Idishe tsaytung fun 1781,” in Tsukunft 1939, columns 50-55.
[27] Rivkind, “Naye tsaytung,” c. 55.
[28] Apparently this copy was also used for strengthening the binding of a book: it shows marks of the floral pattern of a book cover – marks that are lacking, by the way, on the copy in New York. I was able to see the copy in Jerusalem in July 2005, and the New York copy in January 2007; I thank Prof. R.G. Fuks-Mansfeld for presenting me with the photocopy of this copy.
[29] Fuks, “Joodse pers,” 9, 43.
[30] J.W. Schulte Nordholt, The Dutch Republic and American Independence (trans. Herbert H. Rowen; Chapel Hill/London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1982), 144-157; E.S. van Eyck van Heslinga, “De vlag dekt de lading: De Nederlandse koopvaardij in de Vierde Engelse Oorlog,” in Tijdschrift voor Zeegeschiedenis I (1982), 102-105.
[31] Schneider and Hemels, Nederlandse krant, 85-104.
[32] According to Israel, “Republiek”, 111, about 14,000 Ashkenazi Jews were living in Amsterdam around 1750, out of an entire population of 200,000. In 1795, the first official census counted 22,000 Ashkenazi Jews in Amsterdam, out of a total population of 221,000: see R.G. Fuks-Mansfeld, “Verlichting en emancipatie omstreeks 1750-1814,” in Geschiedenis van de joden in Nederland (ed. J. C. H. Blom; Amsterdam, 1995), 183.
[33] Fuks-Mansfeld, “Verlichting,” 181.
[34] Fuks-Mansfeld, “Verlichting,” 180-182; A.D. Zwiers, Kroniek van het Jiddisj: Taalkundige aspecten van achttiende-eeuws Nederlands Jiddisj (Delft, 2003), 30-31.
[35] Fuks-Mansfeld, “Verlichting,” 187.
[36] Schneider and Hemels, Nederlandse krant, 85-104.
[37] A. Speyer, Bashraybung fun der ferendrung odr oyf ruhr in Frankraykh, in Shatzky, Yivo-bleter 2, 49-71.
[38] J. Michman, and M. Aptroot, Storm in the Community: Yiddish Polemical Pamphlets of Amsterdam Jewry 1797-1798 (Cincinnati, 2002).
[39] B. Wallet, “Teloorgang van een taal: Jiddisj in het negentiende-eeuwse Koninkrijk der Nederlanden (I),” in Grine medine: Een tijdschrift voor liefhebbers van de Jiddisje taal 15 (Amsterdam, April 2004), 6-13; and idem, “Einde van het jargon-schandaal: Jiddisj in het negentiende-eeuwse Koninkrijk der Nederlanden (II)” in Grine medine 16 (July 2004), 2-7.
