The Haskalah in Brno (Brünn)? Enlightenment Works Produced by the Moravian Hebrew Printing Press
The Haskalah in Brno (Brünn)? Enlightenment Works Produced by the Moravian Hebrew Printing Press

Summary/Abstract: Works influenced by the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment, were also published by the Hebrew printing press in Brno at the end of the 18th century. To date, little attention has been paid to the circumstances surrounding the publication of haskalic literature in Brno. On the contrary, the publication of haskalic editions in Prague has been well described. The relative proportion of Enlightenment literature printed by the Hebrew presses in Brno and Prague is similar, but the approach to publishing these works differed. An analysis of the Enlightenment editions and, in particular, a comparison with the situation in Prague shows that the publishing of haskalic literature in Brno was not done for educational purposes, as it was in Prague, since it was a commercial enterprise of the printing press owners, Josef Karl Neumann and Josef Rossmann. It is also conceivable that there was a degree of state involvement in the publishing profile of the Brno printing press. It was not a successful business plan, however, and the Enlightenment works printed in Moravia only had a meagre reception.

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