DAVIN (DAVID) DE CADEROUSSE

(fl. 15th cent)

French dyer. He was the first Jew to attempt the printing of Hebrew. He lived in Avignon, where he met a Christian goldsmith (Pocop Waldvogel) from Prague. He promised to teach Waldvogel the art of dyeing, in return for which Waldvogel was to give him 27 iron letters of the Hebrew alphabet as well as instruments for printing. This arrangement broke down, and no specimen of the earliest Hebrew printing press has survived.