DRUCKER, ḤAYYIM B. JACOB (also known as Arbich):

Printer of Amsterdam at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century. His activity as a typesetter, publisher, author, and translator extends from 1680 to 1724. He worked successively in the printing establishments of David Tartas, of Moses Mendez, and of Asher Anshel & Co. He edited in 1690 a Judæo-German translation of Manasseh b. Israel's "Miḳweh Yisrael," and of the "Masse'ot Binyamin" (Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela). He published the following works: in 1706, his own "Leb Ḥakamim" containing a treatise on morals, together with the ethical work "Leb Ṭob," by Isaac b. Eliakim of Posen, both in Judæo-German; in 1711, a new edition of the "Ẓe'enah u-Re'enah"; in 1718, a calendar for the year 5479 (=1719); and in 1722, Isaac Aboab's "Menorat ha-Ma'or," with the Judæo-German translation of Moses Frankfurter, which Frankfurter himself revised. Drucker had two sons, Hendel Elhanan and Jacob, both of whom were the printers and publishers of Judæo-German translations of various works.

Bibliography:
  • Steinschneider and Cassel, Jüdische Typographie und Jüdischer Buchhandel, in Ersch and Gruber, Encyc. xxviii. 70;
  • Fürst, Bibl. Jud. i. 49;
  • Benjacob, Oẓar ha-Sefarim, pp. 254, 338;
  • Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. Nos. 4691, 7919.
J. P. Wi.
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