Gans (1541-1613) resided in Bohemia and was one of the first Central-Eastern European private Jewish scholars. Although not being a rabbi, he studied with some of the most important rabbinic scholars of the day, e.g. with Moshe Isserles or with Sinai ben Betsalel, brother of the Maharal of Prague. He wrote on mathematics, astronomy and especially history. His chronicle Tsemah David (Prague, 1592) manifests his bibliographic interest and fascination with printed book (he used and even referred not only to Jewish but also non-Jewish sources). In the second part of his chronicle (pt. 2, fol. 95b), dealing with the "history of the world,", i.e. including the non-Jewish, Gans included a long eulogy for the invention of print "in the city of Mainz by the means of a Christian gentleman named Johannes Gutenberg." Gans enthusiastically acknowledged the potentially universal benefit of printed book not only for scholars, but also for "craftsmen, laborers, goldsmiths, builders, stonemasons and others, [who] will reveal and disseminate by the means of print countless useful things and inventions, as many books without end will be printed for workers in all professions!" It is significant that the paragraph on print is typographically accentuated by the symbol of a crown that is otherwise used in the book only to mark passages speaking of important kings and emperors.
