Meir ben Ephraim of Padua

Meir ben Ephraim of Padua was a scribe, printer, and teacher. He was probably born in Padua but lived and worked in Mantua, where he served in various communal capacities. Meir was also a rabbinical scholar, as attested in his questions addressed to Moses b. Abraham Provencal, the rabbi of Mantua, and his treatise on the diacritical marks of the Torah, Rimzei ha-Tagim. In 1556, Meir Jacob b. Naphtali of Garolo (d. c. 1570) founded a printing establishment at Mantua. He made a considerable contribution to the printing of Hebrew books which also included the first edition of the Zohar (1558–60).