ADELKIND, ISRAEL CORNELIUS

ADELKIND, ISRAEL CORNELIUS (16^th century), Italian printer. Adelkind was the son of a German immigrant who settled in Padua. He worked in the publishing house of Daniel *Bomberg in Venice from the time of its establishment, except for intervals at other Venetian publishers, such as Dei Farri (1544; where one of his brothers and later his son Daniel also worked) and Giustiniani (1549–52). Adelkind greatly admired the Bomberg family, adding the name of Daniel Bomberg's father, Cornelius, to his own, and named his son after Daniel himself.

Adelkind supervised the publication of the first editions of the two Talmuds (1520–23), which Bomberg printed, and the Midrash Rabbah (1554) printed jointly by Bomberg and Giustiniani. In 1553 the printer Tobias Foa invited Adelkind to manage a printing press in Sabbioneta and, in particular, to supervise the publication of the Talmud. However, a ban was imposed on the Talmud in 1553 after only a few tractates had appeared. Nevertheless, he remained with the firm until 1555 and took part in the publication of other works. He also printed books in Judeo-German, e.g., Elijah Levita's translation of the Psalms (1545). The statement of a Christian contemporary that Adelkind was converted to Christianity is questionable.

bibliography:

D.W. Amram, Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy (1909), 176, 180ff.; J. Bloch, Venetian Printers of Hebrew Books (1932), 12ff., 22ff.; Sonne, in: ks, 4 (1927/28), 57; 5 (1928/29), 176, 278; 6 (1929/30), 145; Perles, Beitraege zur Geschichte der hebraeischen und aramaeischen Studien (1884), 209ff.; British Museum, Catalogue of Italian Books 1465–1600 (1958), 758–9.

[Abraham Meir Habermann]