chapter 11 Sulzbach Editions: Red (1755–1763) and Black (1766–1770)

Sulzbach, in Bavaria, located 50 km east of Nuremberg, was Austrian government prohibited importing Hebrew books home to a Jewish community dating to the Middle Ages, into Austria.3 with settlement recorded as early as 1305. The community Printing Hebrew books in Sulzbach began in the was persecuted in 1337, likely destroyed during the Black seventeenth century in 1669 when Christian Augustus Death in 1349, and not reestablished until 1666 during the (1622–1708), Count Palatine of Sulzbach, permitted Jews to reign of Duke Christian Augustus of Pfalz-Sulzbach.1 After open a Hebrew print-shop due to his interest in mysticism the expulsion of the Jews from Vienna in 1670, additional and . Somewhat prior to this opening, Abraham Jews relocated to Sulzbach. By 1682 the community had Lichtenthaler, a Lutheran, had been given permission an organized school; by 1685 a charter of privileges, which to operate a press. The books that Lichtenthaler pub- was renewed in 1712; and by 1699 fifteen resident Jewish lished were primarily in Latin, but several had content of families, increasing to twenty-two families by 1745.2 Jewish interest. Assisted by Isaac ben Judah Katz (Yitzhak Sulzbach has a rich history as a printing center. Yuedeles) of Prague, Lichtenthaler, first printed Alphabeti Nevertheless, Sulzbach would seem to be an unlikely verè naturalis Hebraici (1667), an illustrated pedagogic location for the disruption of the plans of an Amster- work for instructing deaf-mutes—based on the concept dam press to print the , particularly one as that Hebrew is the primordial language—by Franciscus prominent as that of the Proops’s press. Although Sul- Mercurius van Helmont (1614–99), a physician, kabbal- zbach and its presses were significant, they did not ist, Rosicrucian, and Quaker. Lichtenthaler also published compare with Amsterdam, a leading entrepot and Jewish Knorr von Rosenroth’s Kabbala Denudata, a translation center. Amsterdam’s print-shops were sufficiently pres- of volumes of the Zohar and related works (1677–78), tigious that other locations often noted on their title with two additional volumes printed in Frankfurt on the pages in a large font that their books were printed with Main (1684). “Amsterdam,” then in a smaller font, “letters,” and then The immediate Jewish impetus for opening a give the place of printing, also in a smaller font. Neverthe- Hebrew press in Sulzbach was the Imperial closure of less, as noted in the previous chapter, competition from the Hebrew press in Prague. Jacob Bak left Prague, tak- the Sulzbach press did cause a temporary cessation in the ing his compositor, the above-mentioned Isaac ben Judah publication of the Proops Talmud. Katz (Yuedeles) of Prague, other workers, and typographi- The above notwithstanding, Sulzbach’s presses, active cal equipment with him to Sulzbach. They began printing for 180 years, had a fine reputation, printing over seven in 1669 with a Yiddish Birkat ha-Mazon and accompany- hundred varied titles: primarily liturgical works, siddurim ing with woodcut illustrations, followed by and mahzorim; Bibles; and ethical works. About fifty R. Isaac ben Eliakim of Posen’s ethical Lev Tov, and sev- books were published before 1700. The Sulzbach press eral other works.4 The partners separated the following ceased printing in the mid-nineteenth century, primar- year, partially due to the requirement that they work with ily due to competition from Wolf Heidenheim’s press in Lichtenthaler and partially for personal reasons. Yuedeles Roedelheim and the partial loss of its market when the printed only one work in 1670, an Ashkenazic-rite prayer book, and moved on to Wilhermsdorf. 1 The Principality (Duchy) of Sulzbach, originally part of the Duchy of Pfalz-Neuburg, was separated from that Duchy in 1614 and gained complete independen