Gershom ben Moses

Gershom Ben Moses, member of the Soncino printing family, was one of the most successful and prolific printers of his time, printing from 1489 to 1534, not only in Hebrew, but also in Latin, Greek, and Italian and using for non-Hebrew literature the names Hieronymus, Geronimo, or Girolamo. He printed from Soncino, Casalmaggiore, Brescia, Barco, Fano, Pesaro, Ortona, Rimini, Ancona, and Cesena. Eventually Gershom had to leave Italy for Turkey, where he continued to print in Salonika (1527) and Istanbul from 1530. Gershom’s Hebrew and non-Hebrew productions exceeded 100 volumes each, of which about 20 were Hebrew incunabula, printed before 1500. He also traveled extensively and obtained valuable manuscripts for publication.

Gershom used nuch of his funds to help the victims of the Spanish and Portuguese expulsions of 1492 and 1497.