Hebrew-English Guide to Soncino

35 THE PRINTING MUSEUM THE PRINTING MUSEUM The Printing Museum- Soncino Jewish Printers Study Center- was launched in 1988, on the occasion of the V centenary of the publica- tion of the first complete Jewish Bible with vowels and accents. It is located in a tower building of the XV century. The history of the print is connected with the village and with the story of a Jewish family coming from Speyer, in Germany. Because of the several persecutions, the ancestors of the family of a doctor- rabbi, called Israel Nathan, were forced to leave Speyer and, after a lot of peregrinations, they arrived in Soncino. With the permission of the Duke of Milan, they were allowed to stay. At the beginning, they lent money but, with the founding of the Monte di Pietà in 1472, they had to stop their activity. That’s why they became printers.