Altschul, Naftali Ben-asher

Altschul, Naftali Ben-Asher a Jewish printer in the city of Prague (1649), where his father had carried on the same profession, is the author of a commentary on the Old Test., simple and grammatical, compiled from the best authorities, entitled אילה שלוחה (in allusion to Ge 49:21). The text is in Hebrew and the notes in Jewish-German (best ed. Amsterdam, 1777-78, 6 vols.). He also wrote a manual for preachers, אמרי שפר, Words of Beauty, in thirty- two sections of commonplaces, arranged in alphabetical order (Lublin, 1602). See Furst, Bibliotheca Judaica, 1, 44; Etheridge, Introduction to Hebrew Literature, p. 447; De' Rossi, Dizionario Storico (Germ. transl.), p. 42. (B. P.)