Printing in Mantua has a distinguished history. Mantua was among the earliest places at which Hebrew works were printed. The physician Abraham Conat started printing there as early as 1476, when he produced the Tur Orah Hayyim; some of his productions may have been begun even in the preceding year. He had the merit of producing the only Hebrew incunabulum published during its author's lifetime—"Nofet Ẓufim." His wife, Estellina Conat, made herself responsible for the "Behinat 'Olam," issued from his press after his death. In the printing of Levi ben Gershon's Pentateuch, Conat was associated with Abraham of Cologne, possibly identical with the Abraham de Tintori who afterward emigrated to Bologna. Hebrew printing was resumed at Mantua in 1513 by Samuel Laṭif, who appears to have been forced from business a year later by the competition of the Soncinos. The next printers of Hebrew books were Christians—the Rufinellis and Philipponis (1561-97); their printer's sign was a peacock. A large number of Jewish workmen, including Meir Sofer, his son, and his son-in-law, were employed by them. In the seventeenth century Eliezer de Italia started a Hebrew printing-press (1612), being followed by Judah di Perugia in 1622, who was succeeded in the eighteenth century by Isaac Jare and Raphael Hayyim di Italia printed at Mantua. Their books were typeset by Joshua ben Michel da Sezze.