Obj. ID: 39296  Drashah by Yitzhak ben Avraham Chayes, Prague, 1584

This text was prepared by William Gross:

An early Prague print with a richly-decorated title page that includes the nude standing figures of Adam and Eve. This title page is known from other Prague Hebrew books as well. The volume contains a sermon delivered on the first day of Pesach.
R. Yitzhak b. Avraham Chayes (1538-c.1615), who traced his descent to the sages of Provence, served as rabbi in Prossnitz, and from 1584 (when this volume was published) 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 both the title and final page of the book.