Immanuel Benveniste (also Manuel Benveniste)[1] (1608 in Venice – c. 1660 in Amsterdam) was an Italian Jewish printer in Amsterdam who printed many Hebrew works including an edition of the Talmud from 1644-48.[2][3][4] He was one of a number of notable Portuguese Jewish printers at Amsterdam in the seventeenth century, including Manasseh ben Israel, David de Castro Tartas, and Joseph and Immanuel Athias.[5][6] Benveniste also published the sermons of Saul Levi Morteira in 1652.[7]
Benveniste’s printer’s device (which may have been the family escutcheon) showed an upright lion facing a tower with a star above. Apparently, later printers often “borrowed” this mark for various reasons. The first to do so were Ben Judah ben Mordecai of Posen and Samuel ben Moses ha-Levi, Ashkenazic printers who had previously worked for Benveniste. In their case, Benveniste presumably allowed them to use the mark, perhaps as a show of support for his former employees.[8]