Menaḥem Egozi’s Gal shel egozim (Nut Garden)

Doña Reina Mendes

ca. 1593–1595

These are two pages from a book printed by Doña Reina Mendes at the Hebrew printing press she founded at her residence, Belvedere. This work, Gal shel egozim (Nut Garden) by Menaḥem Egozi, is a collection of homilies on the book of Genesis.

Credits

  1. Menahem Egozi, from Gal shel egozim (Belvedere, 1593?). Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
  2. Menahem Egozi, from Gal shel egozim (Belvedere, 1593?). Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Discussion Questions

  1. Why would being a widow have been advantagious for Reina in establishing her press?

  2. Why do you think Reina would have established a press as the means to support herself?

  3. How might this story change our perspective of women and literacy in the early modern period?

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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Page of printed Hebrew text with word set in decorated border on top.
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Jewish Printing and Book Culture

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Jewish printing unified far-flung communities by standardizing religious texts, created textual uniformity, and enabled vernacular translations, and facilitated the spread of Jewish texts and knowledge. 

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Early Modern Jewish Languages

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