Obj. ID: 36216  Si'ach Yitzchak by Yitzhak ben Avraham Chajes, Prague, 1587

This text was prepared by William Gross:

A rare 16th-century publication from Prague with an unusual title page. The volume is a halakhic work on the laws of Passover by R. Yitzhak Chayes, and include instructions and laws pertaining to the Seder.
R. Yitzhak b. Avraham Chayes (1538-c.1615), who traced his descent to the sages of Provence, served as rabbi in Prossnitz, and during the 1580's, as Chief Rabbi of Prague. He was the brother-in-law of R. Judah Loew (Maharal).

In 1527, R. Gershom b. Solomon ha-Cohen (Katz) applied for and received a royal privilege from King Ferdinand of Bohemia, allowing him to enjoy a monopoly on Hebrew printing in Prague. His descendants, known as the Gersonides, continued to print in Prague until the mide-seventeenth century. By 1570 the press was headed by R. Gershom's son, Mordechai b. Gershom, and Mordechai's brothers, Solomon, Moses and Judah. Over the next two decades, the brothers printed a variety of titles, until the press was passed into the hands of the next generation of Gersonides. Their eventually merged with that of the descendants of the Prague printer Jacob Bak, as the firm of Bak and Katz.
This edition was printed at the press of Mordechai b. Gershom, by his sons Bezalel and Solomon, whose names appear on the book's final page.