Piskei Halachoth [Rabbinic law]

RECANATI, MENACHEM

The [Silk] Partners

Bologna

1538

First Edition. Broad margins. First word within floriated surround. Replete with Hebrew marginalia in old Italian hand. On title, signatures of former owners. Several offending passages on f.22v. (regarding Gentile wine) struck by Church censor

Vinograd, Bologna 12; Mehlman 787; not in Adams

Piskei Halachoth is an important repository of Franco-German Halachic tradition. Later editions of the Piskei Halachoth have been heavily censored, lacking entire chapters. For a comparison of all editions, see Y. Lipschitz, "Piskei Hilchot Recanati" in: Moriah, vol. 8, nos.6-7 (1979, pp. 2-9. The majority of the censored material pertains to Gentiles or Jews who have converted to Christianity Unfortunately, almost nothing is known of Recanati's biography beyond that he lived in the 14th-century, likely in the Italian town of Recanati. See EJ, Vol. XIII, cols. 1606-1608; and the recent monograph by Prof. Moshe Idel, R. Menachem Recanati ha-Mekubal (1998).