The appearance of printing technology in the Jewish world was far more than a technical revolution—it was a spiritual and cultural upheaval that reshaped the foundations of Jewish life. For a people whose existence was bound to the word, the book, and the unbroken chain of learning, the printing press became not merely an instrument of replication but a vessel of survival. It multiplied Torah where exile had scattered it, preserved voices that might have vanished amid the turbulence of history, and gave permanence to the fragile beauty of written tradition.

Monuments of Paper and Parchment is a visual and historical journey into this creative moment, centered on the brief yet extraordinary story of Hebrew printing in Portugal. Between 1487 and 1496—spanning Faro, Lisbon, and Leiria—three Hebrew printing houses flourished, producing a body of work that accounted for nearly two-thirds of all printing in Portugal during that decade. The story begins with the Pentateuch printed in Faro in 1487, the first book printed in Portugal in any language, and concludes with the Almanach Perpetuum of R. Abraham Zacuto in 1496, the first scientific book printed in the land.

This volume invites the reader to rediscover a remarkable flowering of faith and intellect before the shadow of expulsion fell. It is both a tribute to the enduring brilliance of Iberian Jewry and an invitation to rediscover monuments not made of stone, but of paper and parchment.