(RIBa”SH). Teshuvoth Harav [responsa]

AUCTION 34 | Tuesday, September 12th, 2006 at 1:00

Exemplary Hebrew Books: The Library of Joseph Gradenwitz, Esq.

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Lot 78

ISAAC B”R SHESHETH PERFET

(RIBa”SH). Teshuvoth Harav [responsa]

FIRST EDITION. Title within four-part ornamental border (located after the indices, which are bound in front as in most copies seen by Hacker). A wide margined copy ff. (11), (282), (10). Foxed and stained, opening and closing three leaves variously worn with loss, large section of colophon page removed not affecting text. Maroon crushed morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. Folio Vinograd, Const. 193; Yaari, Const. 145; (both Vinograd and Yaari offer erroneous pagination, see J. Hacker, Areshet V, p. 483); Adams I-179

Constantinople: Eliezer Soncino 1546

Est: $2,000 - $3,000

PRICE REALIZED $2,500

One of the leading scholars of his day, the Riba”sh was a disciple of R. Nissim Gerondi and a colleague of Don Hasdai Crescas. He left his native Spain in 1391 when the great massacres broke out and settled in Algiers. His Teshuvoth Harav contains five hundred and eighteen responsa, dealing with all phases of Halachic law. Unlike his predecessors, the Riba”sh wrote his responsa at length, basing his decisions on specific documentation from the sources. The collection is particularly important for the social history of the Jews in 14th-century Spain and North Africa. The work was originally sold in single gatherings and distributed during prayers on the Sabbath. Certain Rabbis were outraged by this practice which they felt desecrated the sanctity of the day. See S. Assaf, Mekoroth u-Mechkarim, (1946) pp. 255-56 for a responsa concerning this matter. The last book printed by Soncino in his Turkish sojourn