(MaHaRaShDa”M). She'eloth U'Teshuvoth [responsa]

AUCTION 46 | Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Hebrew Printed Books, Manuscripts, & Graphic Art

Back to Catalogue Download Catalogue

<Previous Lot

/321

Next Lot>

Lot 217

MEDINA, SAMUEL DE

(MaHaRaShDa”M). She'eloth U'Teshuvoth [responsa]

Title page within decorative woodcut architectural borders incorporating printer’s device (cf. Yaari no. 48). Our copy is Variant B (see Mehlman 756), whereby the responsum on ff. 127-128 concerning slaves and converts, has been replaced by two responsa (designated nos. 190a and 190b) concerning communal strife. On title, monogram signature of R. Chaim Joseph David Azulai (1724-1806). Vol I (Orach Chaim & Yoreh De’ah): ff. 16, 21, (1 blank), 168. Title and first few leaves remargined. Wormholes repaired. Modern calf-backed marbled boards. Folio Vinograd, Salonika 130; Mehlman 756

Salonika: Abraham Joseph Bat-Sheva 1594

Est: $2,000 - $3,000

PRICE REALIZED $2,500

R. Chaim Joseph David Azulai (Chid"a) Copy, with his signature on the title-page. Samuel de Medina was one of the outstanding Halachic decisors of the 16th-century. The Yeshiva he founded in Salonika (which was supported by the noble Donna Gracia Mendes-Nasi) gave rise to several famous scholars from throughout the Ottoman Empire. See M.S. Goodblatt, Jewish Life in Turkey in the XVIth Century, as Reflected in the Legal Writings of Samuel de Medina (1952). For a detailed study of this work and biography of the author, see L. Bornstein, Maphte'ach le-Shu"t R. Shmuel de Medina (1979). For a survey including computerized charts comparing the various editions of this work, see Y. S. Spiegel, Al Shtei ha-Mahadurot shel Teshuvot R. Shmuel de Medina in: Atarah Le-Chaim [Dimitrovsky Festschrift] (1999), pp. 501-33.