Abraham ben Solomon Conat (flourished at

Mantua Mantua ( ; ; Lombard language, Lombard and ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italian region of Lombardy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, eponymous province. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the "Italian Capital of Culture". In 2 ...

in the second half of the 15th century) was an Italian Jewish printer,

Talmudist The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

, and physician. He obtained the title of ''

ḥaber ''Chaber'', ''chaver'' or ''ḥaber'' ( ''ḥāḇēr'', ) is a Hebrew term meaning "associate"; "colleague"; "fellow"; "companion"; or "friend". It appears twice in the Hebrew Bible, and is used in various ways in rabbinic sources. Hebrew Bible ...

'' (associate of a

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

) for his learning, but displayed it chiefly in the choice of works selected by him for printing, which art he and his wife Estellina expressly learned. He embarked upon the business of printing at Mantua in 1476, and became celebrated as one of the earliest printers of Hebrew books in Europe, producing the third to the tenth of Hebrew ''

incunabula An incunable or incunabulum (: incunables or incunabula, respectively) is a book, pamphlet, or broadside (printing), broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. The specific date is essentiall ...

'' as recorded by

Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi (October 25, 1742 in Castelnuovo Nigra, Piedmont – March 23, 1831 in Parma) was an Italian Christian Hebraist. He studied in Ivrea and Turin. In October 1769, he was appointed professor of Oriental languages at the U ...

. In 1475 he established a printing-office at Mantua, from which he issued: * '' Tur Orah Hayyim'', by R.

Jacob ben Asher Jacob ben Asher (c. 1270–1340), also known as Ba'al ha-Turim as well as Yaakov ben haRosh, was an influential Medieval rabbinic authority. He is often referred to as the Ba'al ha-Turim ("Author of the ''Turim''"), after his main work, the ''A ...

(1476) * '' Tur Yoreh De'ah'', by the same author, only one-third of which, however, was printed by him, the rest being executed at

Ferrara Ferrara (; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, capital of the province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main ...

* ''Behinat Olam'', by Jedaiah Bedersi, in which Conat was assisted by his wife Estellina and Jacob Levi of Tarascon * The commentary on the

Pentateuch The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () o ...

Levi ben Gershon Levi ben Gershon (1288 – 20 April 1344), better known by his Graecized name as Gersonides, or by his Latinized name Magister Leo Hebraeus, or in Hebrew by the abbreviation of first letters as ''RaLBaG'', was a medieval French Jewish philosoph ...

(Ralbag) * ''Luhot'', astronomical tables giving the length of day at different times of the year, by Mordecai Finzi * '' Sefer Yosippon'', the pseudo-Josephus or Gorionides * ''

Eldad ha-Dani Eldad ben Maḥli ha-Dani (, 'Eldad son of Mahli the Danite') () was a ninth-century Jewish merchant, traveller, and philologist. Though probably originally from South Arabia, he professed to be a citizen of an "independent Jewish state" in East ...

'' * ''Nofet Zufim'', the rhetoric of Messer Leon (Judah). This was the first book published featuring the work of a living Jewish author. All these books were printed between 1476 and 1480, when the business was suspended on account of the rivalry of Abraham ben Ḥayyim at Ferrara. Abraham Conat was proud of his work; he used to accompany his name in the colophons by the words "Who writes with many pens without the help of miracles, for the spread of the Torah in Israel." He was especially delighted that four pages could be printed at one time on a large sheet, and that he could produce two thousand pages every day. His type was of such a shape that his editions are often taken for manuscripts.

References

, Annals, pp. 8–11, 110–114, 177; *

Zunz Zunz (, ) is a Yiddish surname: * (1874–1939), Belgian pharmacologist * Sir Gerhard Jack Zunz (1923–2018), British civil engineer * Leopold Zunz (Yom Tov Lipmann Tzuntz) (1794–1886), German Reform rabbi and writer, the founder of academi ...

, Z. G. pp. 249, 250; *

Moritz Steinschneider Moritz Steinschneider (; 30 March 1816 – 24 January 1907) was a Moravian bibliographer and Orientalist, and an important figure in Jewish studies and Jewish history. He is credited as having invented the term ''antisemitism.'' Education Mo ...

, Cat. Bodl. col. 2866, No. 7957; *Steinschneider and Cassel, Jüdische Typographie, in Ersch and Gruber, Encyc. section ii., part 28, p. 34; *Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. i. 67, No. 102; *

Julius Fürst Julius Fürst (; 12 May 1805, Żerków, South Prussia – 9 February 1873, Leipzig), born Joseph Alsari, was a Jewish German oriental studies, orientalist and the son of noted maggid, teacher, and Hebrew grammarian Jacob Alsari. Fürst was a dis ...

, Bibl. Jud. i. 185; * D. Chwolson, in Sbornik, St. Petersburg, 1896, pp. 3, 6, 7; *Chwolson Jubilee Volume, p. 68. {{DEFAULTSORT:Conat, Abraham 15th-century Italian Jews 15th-century Italian physicians 15th-century Italian businesspeople Italian printers Printers of incunabula Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown