Sefer Meshalim

Sefer Meschalim ( book of fables ), also known as the cow book , is an illustrated collection of Yiddish fables ( sefer = book ) that was published in Frankfurt am Main in 1697 by Moses ben Eliezar Wallich .

In the foreword, the editor explains that he put the fables together from two books. These are the Mischle Schualim (fox fables) of Rabbi Berachja ha-Nakdan and the Maschal Kadmoni of Rabbi Isaak Sahula . Only in the preface is the Yiddish title of the work given as "It is called cow-book ...", with the letters cow-book highlighted.

The Sefer Meschalim by Moses ben Eliezar Wallich consists of 58 sheets - the title sheet with woodcut, a four-page foreword. It comprises 36 stories with woodcuts, which for the most part coincide with those of the Koie book published in Verona in 1595 . The Sefer Meschalim became popular very quickly, so that several later works are adorned with the title: Das Kuhbuch or Das neue Kuhbuch , Das Andere Kuhbuch .

literature

• Moses Wallich: Safer Meshalim, called the cow book . Soncino-Gesellschaft , Berlin 1925 ( facsimile of the Frankfurt 1697 edition).
• Eli Katz (Ed.): Book of Fables: The Yiddish Fable Collection of Reb Moshe Wallich (translated by Eli Katz), Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI 1994, ISBN 0-8143-2449-5 (= Jewish Folklore and Anthropology , English-Hebrew: English-Hebrew collection of Yiddish fables, first published in Germany in 1697 by Moses ben Eliezar Wallich. Thirty-four stories featuring human and animal characters, full of humor, Jewish custom and social observations. Woodcut illustrations.)