Obj. ID: 36218  Chokhmat Manoach, Prague, 1612

This text was prepared by William Gross:

Novellae and glosses to the Talmud by R. Manoah Hendel b. Shemaria.
Title page with decorative woodcut frame. Diagrams and illustrations throughout elucidate the text. Tractate names set in floral borders. Woodcut illustration of King David at prayer on final page.
R. Manoah Hendel b. Shemaria, a student of R. Moses Isserles (Rema), served in his later years as rabbi in Vienna and was a signatory, together with R. Joshua Falk, on the Vienna Get. He apparently died in 1611, one year prior to the publication of this work, which was brought to press by his son Moses. The title page informs us that Moses gathered the work from his father’s writings, and, because of his father’s comprehensive learning, Moses entitled the book Chokhmat Manoach (The Wisdom of Manoach). We are also informed that Moses had already printed his father’s commentary on R. Bahya Hlava’s Be’ur (Prague, 1611).
This is the only edition of this work.
Jacob b. Gershom Bak established a Hebrew press in Prague in 1605. Eight generations of his family printed Hebrew books there until the beginning of the 19th C. Himself a renowned Venetian printer of Hebrew books, Bak had previously printed in Verona and Venice before coming to Prague, where he was initially associated with the Schedel family press. He established his own press and published until his death in 1618. Second to the Gersonides, his was the largest Hebrew printing press in Prague. The descendants of both presses merged in 1784 as the firm of Bak and Katz.

Commentator: Manoach Hendel ben Shemaria