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Pentateuch with Haftorot in Spanish for use of the large Marrano population in Holland. Marranos in Amsterdam differed from those in other Protestant countries in that they openly practiced Judaism almost from the moment of their arrival. Thanks to the Marranos, Amsterdam became one of the greatest Jewish centers in the world in the 17th century; it had some of the finest academies and produced some of the greatest Jewish thinkers.
Solomon Proophs (d. 1734), scion of a family of Hebrew printers, publishers, and booksellers in Amsterdam. His father, Joseph, may have been a Hebrew printer as well. Solomon 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.
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