chapter 8 Prague—The Censored Edition: Background Prague, among the foremost cities in Central Europe, is years later in 1567, Emperor Maximilian II (1564–1576) a city with a long and distinguished history. Settled at an reconfirmed Jewish privileges, issuing an Imperial char- early date, its origins are recorded in legendary tales. It is ter easing restrictions on Jewish trade and business. The reported that the first inhabited location was a hill named period that followed, under his successor, Rudolf II (1576– Vysehrad (higher castle, acropolis) on the right bank of the 1611), has been described as a “golden age” for Prague Vltava River, residence of a semi-mythical Prince Krok, his Jewry. Another expulsion was ordered in 1744 by Maria daughter Libussa, and her husband, the peasant Premysl. Theresa (1740–1780) and carried out in 1745–1748, but Jews Jews may have been in Prague from Roman times, and were allowed to return soon after due to influential inter- there is later mention—in the tenth century—of a Jewish vention and the promise to pay high taxes.4 presence when the traveler Ibrahim ibn Jacob of Tortosa, Prague’s prominence in Jewish history may be attrib- author of an Arabic travelogue, visited Prague. He is vari- uted to it having, for many years, the largest number of Jews ously described as a scientist or slave trader. Peter Demetz of any city in Europe, as well as a central location, distin- reports that some scholars believe, given Ibrahim’s eclec- guished rabbinic leadership, and noted yeshivot. Among tic interests, that there might have been two individuals the prominent rabbis associated with Prague are R. Isaac of the same name. Demetz suggests that Ibrahim might ben Moses of Vienna (Or Zaru’a, d. c. 1250), R. Judah Loew have been sent by Caliph al-Hakam II on a diplomatic ben Bezalel (Maharal, 1525–1609), R. Ephraim Solomon ben mission to Emperor Otto I of Merseburg, recording his Aaron of Luntschitz (1550–1619), R. Shabbetai Sheftel ben observations on “landscapes, plants, commerce, medi- Akiva Horowitz (c. 1561–1619), R. Isaiah ben Abraham cal problems, and peoples for a brilliant group of Jewish ha-Levi Horowitz (ha-Shelah ha-Kadosh, c. 1565–1630), scholars assembled at that time in Cordova.” He dates R. Yom Tov Lipmann Heller (1579–1654), R. David ben Ibrahim’s arrival in Prague at 965, describing the com- Abraham Oppenheim (Oppenheimer, 1664–1736), and merce and informing that “he found Prague (‘smaller than R. Ezekiel ben Judah Landau (Noda bi-Yehudah, 1713–1793). towns usually are but bigger than villages’) a place made Printing came early to Bohemia, movable type being richer by commerce than all others.”1 Yet another traveler, used for the first time in 1476 in Pilsen. Fifteen incunabula the renowned Pethahiah of Regensburg, began his east- are attributed to Prague, beginning with Articuli statuum ward journey from Prague in 1187. utraquistorum, published in 1487 by an anonymous press. When, in 1235, King Wenceslaus I fortified Prague by In 1487 and 1488 a second anonymous printer published surrounding it with a wall and ditch, included within it a Bohemian Bible and a psalter (1487) and a folio edition was the Jewish quarter, divided from the old town by gates of Benesch ab Horowitz’s (d. 1375) canon of St. George at and a wall. Approximately two decades later, in 1254, Otta- Prague Chronicon Marty miani (The Chronicle of Troyes, kar II issued regulations pertaining to the Jews of Prague September 26, 1488).5 (Celakowsky, “Codex Juris Municipiorum”).2 Subsequent Hebrew printing began somewhat later. The first Jewish history in Prague is notable for periods of prosper- Hebrew press in Prague—the first such press established ity and incidents of persecution—as early as the Crusades north of the Alps—was that of R. Isaiah ben Asher ha-Levi in the eleventh century—as well as edicts of expulsion. Horowitz, R. Jekuthiel ben Isaac Dan known as Zalman מאיר כותב תפילין Among the most notable of the expulsions was that of Bumslau, R. Meir ben David mikhtam 1541–1545 when Ferdinand I (1526–64) expelled the Jews from Prague, described in the elegy Anna Elohei Avraham, composed by R. Abraham ben Avigdor (d. 1542).3 This was 4 Jan Herman, et al., EJ, 448–56; Arno Pařík, s. v. “Prague” Yivo Ency­ clopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, G. D. Hundert, ed. (New Haven/ followed by another expulsion from 1559 to 1562. Only five New York: Yale University Press/YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, 2008). 1 Peter Demetz, Prague in Black and Gold: Scenes from the Life of a 5 Alfred W. Pollard, Catalogue of Books Mostly from the Presses of the European City (New York, 1997), 14, 16. First Printers Showing the Progress of Printing with Movable Metal 2 https://archive.org/stream/encyclopaediabri22chisrich#page/248/ Types through the Second Half of the Fifteenth Century, collected by mode/2up/search/prague; Gotthard Deutsch and Schulim Ochser, Rush C. Hawkins, catalogued by Alfred W. Pollard, and deposited “Prague,” JE 10: 153–54. in the Annmary Brown Memorial at Providence, RI (Oxford, 1910), 3 Yehoshua Horowitz, “Abraham ben Avigdor,” EJ, vol. 1, 295. facsimile reprint n. d., 289–90. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004376731_010 Prague—The Censored Edition: Background 125 R. Solomon ben Samuel ha-Levi, R. Mordecai ben ,מפראג Eliezer, and R. Shemaryah ben David. Their first imprint, the first Hebrew book printed in Prague, was a quarto Ashkenazic-rite prayer book for weekdays and Shabbat, completed Erev Shabbat, 24 Kislev “hide yourself for a December 13, 1512), until the wrath = 273 רג"ע) little while has passed” (Isaiah 26:20).6 This volume, a quarto in for- mat, includes a haggadah, Pirkei Avot, and Hoshanot, but not grace after meals. Olga Sixtová notes that at the time the partners became active, the print-shop of Severin, where Mikuläŝ Konáč of Hodišov and Jan Moravus worked, was in existence. She suggests that “it is possible that the first Hebrew Prague printed works originated in the Christian printing house which the publishers rented with its printing materials and maybe staff as well.”7 A folio Pentateuch (Hamishah Humshei Torah, 20: 274 ff.) follows this prayer book, begun in 1514 but not completed until 1518 (Figure 8.1). At the bottom of the title page is a statement that “it was printed in Prague by the young printers, all named at the end of the work.” Also printed in 1515 was a Birkat ha­Mazon (grace after meals, 40, 49f.), now extant as a unicum, and two prayer books, one Ashkenazic rite, the other Ashkenazic-Polish rite. The group of printers changed. Only Meir ben David remained, but he was joined by R. Gershom ben Solomon ha-Kohen (Katz), Meir ben Jacob ha-Levi Epstein, and Hayyim ben Figure 8.1 David Shahor. In 1527, Gershom ha-Kohen applied for, and received, a royal privilege from King Ferdinand of volumes of the Yiddish edition of Yotzerot hymns (1605, Bohemia, allowing only Gershom to enjoy a monopoly on 1608); however, unpublished sources indicate an even ear- Hebrew printing in Prague. Based on the number of titles lier Bak family connection with Prague, that of the Italian issued, his descendants—known as the Gersonides— Bak family. Jacob had published several Hebrew books administered the largest Hebrew printing-press in Prague. in Verona, among them the versified Yiddish romance They continued to print independently until 1784 when Paris un Vienne, which he would republish in Prague their press merged with that of Jacob Bak’s descendants (c. 1605–15) and the Maharal’s Tiferet Yisrael (1599), before (Bak’s firm opened in 1605) as the firm of Bak and Katz. coming to Prague. Sixtová observes that the appearance of As described by Sixtová, the Bak family press—printer the Yotzerot “was rather low-grade compared to what was of the Talmud we are concerned with and among the fore- being produced in Italy and even books printed locally.” most firms in Prague Hebrew publishing—began “rife Apparently there were also disputes with Jacob and his with real disagreements and bibliographic muddle.” She then partners the Schedel family.8 notes that the founder of the press in Prague, Jacob ben In 1607, Bak and Jacob Stabnitz published R. Isaac ben Gershom, began printing there with the first and second Judah ha-Levi’s Pa’neah Raza, discourses on the weekly Torah reading and, in the following year, Bak, at the press of Abraham ben Shalom, published a Shulhan Arukh 6 Friedberg, Central Europe, 1–2. 7 Olga Sixtová, “The Beginnings of Prague Hebrew Typography Orah Hayyim and several other works. Jacob Bak’s sons, 1512–1569,” in Hebrew Printing in Bohemia and Moravia, ed. Olga Judah and Joseph, both together and individually, printed Sixtová (Prague: Academia, 2012), 75. In contrast to other cities, books until 1620. Although the Thirty Years’ War proved such as Amsterdam, Frankfurt on the Main, and Vienna, where non-Hebrew books with Hebrew letters were printed, it appears that no such works are recorded by Freimann, “A Gazetteer 8 Olga Sixtová, “Jewish Printers and Printing Presses in Prague 1512– of Hebrew Printing,” 313, who also lists the prayer book as the 1670 (1672),” in Hebrew Printing in Bohemia and Moravia, ed. Olga first Hebrew imprint in Prague. Sixtová (Prague: Academia, 2012), 60–62..