SHAPIRA, ISAAC BEN NOAH COHEN

(The Katz Press?)

(Prague)

circa 1640

Sepher Zikaron [Joseph Karo’s Code abridged, versified and arranged mnemotechnically]. ff.24, 30, 19, 3. Four parts in one, complete witht three titles. * Pethichath Halev [abridgement of the Author’s (unpublished) Harchavath Halev - Kabbalistic discourses]

Vinograd, Prague 339 and 347; Mehlman 877 and 941

The author, Rabbi of Mezhirech, was mentor to Joel Sirkes (The Ba”CH), one of Poland’s most outstanding Talmudists. He is titled “Ha’gaon” on the title page of the second work and in the approbation; an honorific sparingly used at the time. These works are variously assigned to Cracow and Prague, but the watermarks strongly point to the latter. For another (incomplete) copy of the first mentioned work offered at auction, see Christie’s, Hebrew Printed Books, Duplicates from the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary, 22nd May 1986, lot 66