Tzemach David צמח דוד
David Gans's chronicle, Prague 5352. Two parts side by side: a Jewish chronicle and a general one—so that one may see what happened in the same years among one's own people and among others.
Published in Prague in 5352. It is divided in two: the first part a Jewish chronicle, the second a general one.
What sets it apart from other chronicles. That there are two of them. The author neither mixed the two reckonings nor chose one: he set them side by side. The reader sees a year—and sees what happened in that year among the Jews and among the nations.
It is exactly this device that lies behind any timeline in which a Jewish track runs beside a world one.
Its author, David Gans, lived in Prague in the days of the Maharal and was acquainted with Kepler and Tycho Brahe. For him the reckoning of years and the reckoning of the lights were one occupation—and Tzemach David shows it.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Tzemach David, Prague 5352 — the two parts of the chronicle and the year of printing
Scholarship
- Encyclopaedia Judaica, “Gans, David” — Prague, the plan of the book, the acquaintance with the astronomers
Basis: documents and evidence.