Sefer Ha'Midot - Yitzchak Satanow - Berlin, 1784 - First Edition - Chevrat Chinuch Ne'arim Printing Press

Sefer Ha'Midot, "teaches how to curb each power, anger, desire, praise, jesting, love, hate pride, submission, and other attributes, brings relief to the illnesses of the mind". Berlin, 1784. First edition. Chevrat Chinuch Ne'arim printing press.
By Yitzchak Levi of Satanow (Сатанів). The author name does not appear on the title page yet is implied by the approbation.
With "the approbation of the geniuses", with seven signatures, most likely forged, from the 17th of Av 1774 (26.6.1774): Mordechai Ze'ev [ben Rabbi Moshe] of Satanow "tends to sit in … Lvov", Mordechai Meisel of Zholkva, Yosef [Te'omim] of Frankfurt an der Oder, Aharon Ha'Levi Horowitz of Aizpute, Mordechai [author of] Sha'ar Ha'melech of Wielkie, Yehuda Leib (Eger] of Halberstadt, Zvi Hirsch of Latchev.
From leaf 137 until the end of the book "Mispar Ha'Nefesh", a section of the book "Ha'Nefesh" by Moshe Mendelssohn and a colophon at its end: "Happy will be he who waits for the second section … of the book authored by the well-known scholar … Moshe of Dessau".
Yitzchak Satanow - a leader of the members of the Haskalah movement, the manager of their printing house and the author of many books
Satanow was born in Satanow (Сатанів), Russia (Ukraine of today). In 1772 he moved to Berlin, where he worked as a teacher of the children of the wealthy Jewish families of the town. In Berlin he met the members of the Haskalah (the Jewish Enlightenment) Movement, which strated then, including Moshe Mendelssohn, Naftali Hirtz Wessely, Yoel Brill and others. He worked as the manager of the printing house of the members of the Haskalah movement, "Chinuch Ne'arim", and published dozens of Haskalah books. From time to time he returned to his hometown, where his wife and family still lived. He died in Berlin in 1804.
Satanow was a controversial figure. His compositions were written in many different styles some of which were presented by him as if they were written by earlier Torah scholars; thus, he was treated as flighty at best and as a fraud at worst. So it seems by the approbation which was written by five rabbis, including Rabbi Yosef Te'omim, to his book "Mishlei Asaf" (an approbation which was most likely forged): "We do not know who wrote it, since the above Rabbi Yitzchak says that he has found it … but maybe the above Rabbi Yitzchak himself had written it …" Thus, in the approbation to his book "Kuntras Mi'Sefer Ha'Zohar Chiburah Tinyana" he described the difference between him and regular forgers such that "they steal things from others and attribute them to themselves while he steals from himself and attributes it to others".
His opinions were also controversial: on the one hand, he was dedicated to the Enlightenment and the natural sciences; on the other, he drew his philosophy from the Jewish rabbis of the Middle Ages and continued to observe the Mitzvot. His contemporary critics named him "half heretic, half believer" while the extreme members of the Enlightenment Movement ridiculed his religious hypocrisy. His dress style also contributed to his multifaceted image: he used to wear modern German clothes like the intellectual and above them a long Polish coat like the traditional Jews!
Satanow dedicated his life to publishing the books of the Jewish Enlightenment. He passionately spent time writing, printing and selling books of the Jewish Enlightenment.
To finance the activities of the printing house, he founded in 1794, the "Chevrat Marpeh La'Nefesh" to which the richest Jews of Berlin donated large sums of money. In the last years of his life he became blinded and used assistants to proffread and print the books.

144 leaves. 12 cm.
Condition: Very Good. Thick, high-quality leaves. Stains. Some of the leaves have very short margins.