Soncino family (printers)

The Soncino family (Hebrew: משפחת שונצינו‎) was an Italian Ashkenazic Jewish family of printers, deriving its name from the town of Soncino in the duchy of Milan. It traces its descent through a Moses of Fürth, who is mentioned in 1455, back to a certain Moses of Speyer, of the middle of the 14th century. The first of the family engaged in printing was Israel Nathan b. Samuel, the father of Joshua Moses and the grandfather of Gershon. He set up his Hebrew printing-press in Soncino in the year 1483, and published his first work, the tractate Berakot, February 2, 1484. The press was moved about considerably during its existence. It can be traced at Soncino in 1483-86; Casal Maggiore, 1486; Soncino again, 1488–90; Naples, 1490–92; Brescia, 1491–1494; Barco, 1494–97; Fano, 1503-6; Pesaro, 1507–20 (with intervals at Fano, 1516, and Ortona, 1519); Rimini, 1521–26. Members of the family were at Constantinople between 1530 and 1533, and had a branch establishment at Salonica in 1532–33. Their printers' mark was a tower, probably connected in some way with Casal Maggiore.

The last of the Soncinos was Eleazar b. Gershon, who worked at Constantinople from 1534 to 1547. It is obvious that the mere transfer of their workshop must have had a good deal to do with the development of the printing art among the Jews, both in Italy and in Turkey. While they devoted their main attention to Hebrew books, they published also a considerable number of works in general literature, and even religious works with Christian symbols.

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