[BILINGUALISM / TURKISH - HEBREW GENESIS / EARLY HOLZHAUSEN IMPRINT / ORIENTAL PRESS IN VIENNA] سفر تكوين المخلوقات / Sefer tekvînü’l-mahlûkât = בראשית / Bereshit

[GENESIS IN TURKISH & HEBREW].

A.Riechert = A. Rikhard ve-Shutafot, Beç = Vienna, 1872.

Original cloth binding with a bilingual title in Hebrew and Ottoman Turkish (in Arabic script) on the front board, and blind-tooled decorations on both boards. Demy 8vo (22 × 14 cm). Text in Ottoman Turkish and Hebrew. [4], 176 pp. Cloth slightly faded; foxing to the first and last blank leaves and pastedowns, as well as to some margins; hinges slightly split. Overall, a good copy.

Extremely rare early Viennese edition of this bilingual "Genesis" in Hebrew and Ottoman Turkish, one of only three produced by the Adolf Holzhausen Printing House in Vienna, a major centre for Hebrew book production in its time. According to the Özege catalogue, it represents one of the few bilingual Holzhausen editions.

Adolf Holzhausen (1868-1931) was an influential Austrian-Jewish publisher and bookseller, notable for his contributions to the world of printing and publishing in Vienna. He was the son of Adolf Holzhausen the Elder (1827-1892), who led the Viennese court and the university’s book printing company. Growing up in a family deeply rooted in the book trade, Holzhausen received thorough training in the family business; his father had owned the prestigious Manzsche Buchdruckerei (Manzsche Book Printing Company) since 1858.

Holzhausen developed specialized expertise in typesetting and printing of oriental scripts, and he supplied his company with carefully crafted oriental typefaces, which were highly valued in scholarly and literary circles. Building on this expertise, he eventually established his own university book printing company as well as a private publishing house, focusing primarily on art books, historical works, and scholarly publications.

Following the upheavals of the First World War, Holzhausen was appointed head of the Austrian Military Geography Institute, reflecting both his organizational abilities and his intellectual reputation. Beyond his publishing and military contributions, he was a strong advocate for collaboration among Austrian educational book publishers, promoting greater unity and standards in the production of educational materials. Through his dual roles as a printer and publisher, Holzhausen left a lasting impact on Viennese cultural and academic life, bridging traditional craftsmanship with modern publishing practices and fostering scholarship in art and history.

TBTK 12907., For later edition, see Özege 19925., As of March 2026, OCLC lists no copies in a Western library (see 236007780), but for the earlier edition (1860), it can be traced only in the Stanford University Cecil H. Green Library (see 71019424).