Hamadfis Printing

The Frankfurt Oder* Shas has on the last pageof Meseches Nidah printed the following:

נעשה סדור אותיות ע”י המסדר ישראל

 וע”י  אחותו הבתולה  געלא בת כהר”ר משה שליט”א

 בשנת נקבה סובב זכר לפ”ק תנ”ד **

In one of the early printed Seforim  the following declaration is printed "I, Estellina, the wife of my worthy  husband Abraham Conat wrote this Sefer בחינת עולם”

This Sefer was actually written by  ידעיה הבדרשי not by Estellina. What she actually meant was she printed it.

When printing was still in its infancy there was no uniform word in Loshon Hakodesh for the words “print, printed, printer etc.” 

Many used the term Kesiva (writing)***. Others   termed it Mechokek (engraving). Some termed it Ha’atek (copy). Some used the word Siddur Osios (organizing

the letters.

Eventually the word D’fus (form ) became the standard translation for print.

*There are 2 Frankfurts in Germany 1)D’Mein (city) 2) D’Oder (town)