Tzok Ha’Itim [“Sufferings of the Times”]

(MEIR BEN SAMUEL OF SCHEBRESHIN)

Vendramin

Venice

1656

Plagiarized edition, with the publisher, Joshua Ben David of Lvov, signing the introduction purporting to be the author

Vinograd, Venice 1323; Mehlman 1613

A contemporary rhymed account of the Chmielnicki massacres (1648-49) written in Cracow during the summer of 1650. The author personally witnessed the attacks and collected many accounts from refugees shortly after. Though structured in the same style as accounts of the First Crusades, the author is credited with a higher degree of historical accuracy than other 17th-century chroniclers - given his proximity to the events. See EJ, XI col. 1256