Gal shel Egozim [Sermons on the Pentateuch]

EGOZI, MENACHEM BEN MOSES

Joseph Ascaloni for Dona Reyna, Duchess of Naxos

Belvedere

(c.1593-95)

FIRST EDITION

Vinograd, Const. 306; Ya’ari, Const. 228; Adams M-1247

Following the death in 1593 of the Constantinople-based Hebrew printer Solomon Jabez, Dona Reyna widow of the illustrious Don Joseph Nasi, used the remaining inheritance left to her following the expropriation of much of her wealth and established a printing-press in her Palace of Belvedere in nearby Orta-Koy. For reasons unclear, the press was soon transferred to Kuru-Cesme, another suburb of Constantinople. Thus, “the noble lady of noble lineage” became the first Jewish woman to establish a printing-press. See: C. Roth, The House of Nasi-The Duke of Naxos (1948) pp. 217-19. With intiguing inscription on title by Elchanan Kirchan, “The son-in-law of R. Tzvi Hirsch [Berlin] and the son of R. Aaron Samuel Koidanover, a uthor of Birchath Ha’zevach, Birchath Shmuel, Emunath Shmuel and Tifereth Shmuel...” He narrates an incident when this volume was “Stolen from my father-in-law [by] one who wears clothing that is not his. Those transgressing the sin of [theft]...should be wary of being burnt by the coals of a Scholar.”