Tzemach David [historical chronicle]

GANS, DAVID

Solomon and Moses Katz

Prague

1592

FIRST EDITION. Two parts in one volume. Both titles within typographic borders

Vinograd, Prague 69; Mehlman 1314

Rare first edition. David Gans (1541-1613), disciple of both R. Moses Isserles and R. Judah Löw (MaHaRa”L) of Prague, was a most multifaceted individual, who in every way was a product of the spirit of the so-called Rudolfine Era, under the enlightened enlightened Emperor Rudolph. (See André Neher, Jewish Thought and the Scientific Revolution of the Sixteenth Century: David Gans and His Times (1986). Tzemach David is Gans' best known work. It is divided into two parts, the first containing the annals of Jewish history, the second those of general world-history. For this second part, the author consulted the writings of Spangenberg, Laurentius Faustus, Hubertus Holtzius, Georg Cassino and Martin Borisk. Tzemach David is the first work of its' kind among the Aschkenazi Jews. Indeed, in his preface to the second volume Gans deemed it necessary to justify himself for having dealt with so secular a subject as the annals of general history and endeavored to demonstrate that it indeed was permitted to study history on the sacred Sabbath-day