Isaac Satanow. Shorashim.

(AMERICAN-JUDAICA).

Chanoch Ne’arim

Berlin

1787

Two parts in one volume.

Vinograd, Berlin 356-7.

The first American ‘prenumeranten’ to be recorded in a Hebrew Book. Publishers of Hebrew books in the 18th century frequently attempted to defray the cost of printing of new works by soliciting subscribers in advance. In addition to being assured of receiving a copy of the publication, these subscribers, or ‘prenumeranten,’ were acknowledged by the inclusion of their names in the final printed work. Such lists of prenumeranten are especially useful to historians and scholars in gauging the geographical reach of particular literary texts. The present volume includes the very first known instance of a Hebrew book whose pre-publication subscribers included individuals from the United States: one “Rabbi Judah, son of Meir and his son.” Isaac Satanow (1732–1804), was among the most prolific of the early Haskalah writers. He served as the director of the printing press of the Chevrat Chinuch Ne’arim ("Society for the Education of the Youth), where he published the present work, a treatise on the roots of Hebrew words, combined with a Hebrew-German dictionary and thesaurus, the whole designed for pedagogical use.