Moses Wallich

Little is known about the life of Moses ben Eliezer Wallich. He hailed from a famous family deeply attached to the community of Worms. His Sefer meshalim (Book of Fables) is, with some variations, a reprint of Ku-bukh (The Book of Cows) printed in Verona in 1595. Distinguishing this print from that made a century before is a letter of approbation from R. Joseph Samuel ben Tsvi of Kraków, then serving as a rabbi in Frankfurt, that this text is to be under copyright. Furthermore, Wallich identifies the thirteenth-century Isaac ibn Sahula’s Meshal ha-kadmoni (The Ancient Parable) and Berakhiah ben Natronai ha-Nakdan’s Mishle shu‘alim (Fox Fables) as the original sources for these fables in his title page. In the first preface, Wallich maintains that his book is also called Ku-bukh.