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Proops, family of Hebrew printers, publishers, and booksellers
in Amsterdam. Solomon Ben Joseph (d. 1734), whose father may
have been a Hebrew printer as well, was established as a bookseller
in Amsterdam and associated with other printers from 1697 to
1703. In 1704 he set up his own Hebrew press, which produced
mainly liturgical books but also a wider range of works in
halakhah, aggadah, Kabbalah, ethics, and history. In 1714 Proops
began to print a Talmud edition in competition with that planned
by Samuel b. Solomon Marches and Raphael b. Joshua de Palasios,
but was forced by them to discontinue in view of their
prior rabbinic monopoly. From 1715 productions by Proops
carried advertisements of books he had published, and in 1730 he
issued a sales catalog (Appiryon Shelomo), the first such Hebrew
publication.
At his death, appointed guardians to operate the
press, and even when his sons Joseph (d. 1786), Jacob (d. 1779),
and Abraham (d. 1792) took over, they traded under the old name
until 1751. Between 1752 and 1765 the sons, now under their own
name, printed a Talmud edition with interruptions, which were
due in part to attempts to print a Talmud in *Sulzback, against
which they successfully asserted their own rabbinical monopoly. In
1761 they bought the typographical material of the *Athias press,
but business declined. In 1785 Joseph Proops sold most of his work
to Kurzbeck of Vienna, and when he died a year later his widow
and sons, for some time in partnership with Abraham Prins, continued
printing on a small scale until 1812. From 1774 to his death
Jacob Proops worked on his own; his widow and sons contued
along until 1793 and until 1797 in partnership with Solomon (d. 1833),
son of Abraham Proops; Solomon worked alone until 1827,
Abraham Proops had been active on his own in 1776-79; afterward
he removed his business to *Offenbach, but his son, who worked
with him, returned to Amsterdam at his father's death. David,
a son of Jacob Proops, printed from 1810 to 1849 in partnership with
H. van Emde and his widow, when the press was sold to Levisson
who continued it until 1869; the Levisson brothers remained active
until 1917.
Encylopedia Judaica
Vol 16 p. 1554
year aprox.: 1990