"Sefer HaNitzachon" was long inaccessible to Christian Hebraists, and a copy was only obtained in 1644 by a deceitful ruse, involving outright theft, by the professor of Hebrew at the University of Altdorf, , who learning that a rabbi in Schnaittach possessed a copy, obtained an interview with him for a debate, and when the rabbi took down his copy to consult, had it snatched from his hands, to be then copied and printed.It is this copy which forms the "editio princeps".