Among those who led to the scientific presentation of Rabbinic literature in modern times are to be mentioned Jair Hayyim Bacharach (1634-1702), rabbi of Worms, of whose works very little has been preserved but who was interested in the scientific presentation of Rabbinic theology as the theory of oral tradition, and Jacob Emden (1696-1776), the bitter opponent of Jonathan Eybeschuetz, who gathered historical material on Sabbatai Zebi, and the mystics who followed him and had the boldness, although a believer in Kabbala, to state that the Zohar, as we possess it, is not the work of Simeon ben Johai. An emancipation from the strict Rabbinic dialectics by better attention to correct Rabbinic texts and to the study of philological and archæological questions is found in the works of Joseph Steinhart (1706-1776), rabbi of Fuerth, Isaiah Pick (1720-1799), and Elijah of Wilna (1720-1797). The sufferings of the Jews in Spain stimulated interest in historical literature and various authors, chiefly prompted by a desire to keep up the courage of the Jews in the midst of persecutions, wrote historical works. Among them may be mentioned Gedaliah ibn Yahya, an Italian who wrote the “Chain of Tradition,” Solomon ibn Verga, a Spaniard who emigrated to Turkey and wrote “Shebet Jehudah,” Joseph Cohen of Avignon, who wrote “The Valley of Weeping,” and Samuel Usque, who wrote a work in Portuguese called “Consolations in Tribulation,” all of the sixteenth century. Somewhat later David Gans (died at Prague in 1617) wrote a dry compilation of events in Jewish and general history under the title “Zemah David.” To the seventeenth century belongs the Oriental, David Conforte, his “Kore Hadorot” being chiefly valued for its accounts of Rabbinic literature in the Orient. Jehiel Heilprin of Minsk, eighteenth century, wrote a history in the style of a chronicle, beginning with Creation. It shows a naive belief in the historicity of the Midrash but is very valuable by reason of its collection of historic passages from Rabbinic literature. Secular education was slowly beginning to find its way among the Jews. Quite a number of German Jews studied medicine in Italy, chiefly from a practical point of view. Tobias Cohen of Metz (1652-1729) studied in Frankfort-on-the-Oder, being supported by the Elector of Brandenburg. In his later years he lived in the Orient, where he wrote a compilation on various scientific subjects, “Maaseh Tobiyah.” In this he shows sound knowledge of medicine. CHAPTER VIII THE PERIOD OF EMANCIPATION FROM 1791.