Adelkind

A prænomen; also a family name among the Jews. As the former it is found in a list of martyrs in Nuremberg in the year 1298, and also occurs in a similar list for Weissensee of the year 1303. As a family name it is first met with in the case of Baruch Adelkind of Padua (but evidently of German origin), one of whose sons, Cornelius, became a well known printer and publisher. The name is purely German, and occurs very early in German literature; the two words that form it, Adel (or Edel = "noble") and Kind (or Kint, Chint = "origin," "family"), are met very often in names for both men and women among the Jews of Germany.

Bibliography:

  * Salfeld, Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches, pp. 179, 216, 386.



W. M.Cornelius B. Baruch Adelkind:

Printer and publisher; lived in Italy during the first half of the sixteenth century; he was of German descent. From 1524 to 1544 he was in the employ of the Venetian publisher Daniel Bomberg, by whom were issued, with Adelkind's aid, texts of the Bible entire and in part, commentaries on the Bible, and prayer-books according to the German, Spanish, and Karaite rites. In 1544 he worked for another Venetian publisher, Giovanni di Gara, who, during that year, published editions of Baḥya b. Asher's famous commentary and of the pseudo-historical work, "Yosippon." In the following year Adelkind's name appeared on the title-page of the Midrash on the Pentateuch and the Megillot published in Venice by Giustiniani. From 1546 to 1553 he seems to have combined the functions of printer and publisher; for an edition of Solomon ibn Gabirol's "Mibḥar ha-Peninim" (Venice, 1546) and a reprint of a prayer-book of the German rite (Venice, 1549) bear his name alone. In 1553 he changed his residence from Venice to Sabbionetta, where he was employed by T. Foa, an edition of the Pentateuch, Megillot, and Hafṭarot (1553-55) being published with his aid.

The phrase "from the stem of Israel," that Adelkind and his brother (or brothers?) employ upon several occasions, has suggested to Steinschneiderthe possibility that he might have been a convert to Christianity. But in the poem on a certain apostate Marano of Venice, which the publisher Soncino adds to his edition of Vidal Benveniste's "Meliẓat 'Efer we-Dinah" (The Poem of 'Efer and Dinah), he calls Adelkind "Cornelius the Israelite," as does Elias Levita in one of the poems addressed by him to Levi b. Gerson.

Bibliography:

  * Steinschneider, Jüd. Typographie, in Ersch and Gruber, Encyklopädie, xxviii. 44;
  * idem, Cat. Bodl. No. 7765.



W. M.Daniel Adelkind:

Printer and publisher; son of Cornelius b. Baruch Adelkind. Little is known of him except for the years 1550-52; and even for that short period the only data are to be gleaned from the mention of his name on the title-pages of books. In 1550 he was engaged with Giustiniani of Venice, whom he assisted in publishing the first edition of the Hebrew translation, by Moses ibn Tibbon, of Maimonides' philosophical work, "Millot ha-Higgayon." In 1551 and 1552 he seems to have had, in Venice, a printing-office of his own; for the following four books, which bear his name as printer, mention no other as editor or publisher: Jacob Weil's "Bediḳot," with a short glossary (Venice, 1551); Samuel Archivolti's ethical work, "Degel Ahabah" (Venice, 1551); "Megillat Sefer" (Venice, 1552); and, finally, the German "Præcepta Mulierum," or "Frauenbüchlein," in a short epilogue to which he begs his father to accept this "booklet" as a gift from his son (1st ed., Venice, 1552).

Bibliography:

  * Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. Nos. 3715, 3949, 5631 (3), 6513 (41), 7004 (1), 7766.



W. M.