She'eloth u-Teshuvoth [responsa]

ASHER BEN YECHIEL (RO”SH)

Zanetto Zanetti

Venice

1607

Title within historiated woodcut architectural form border. Printed in rabbinic type in double columns. On title, signature of former owner: "Abraham ben Elchanan Samuel Padua"

Vinograd, Venice 1034; Steinschneider 4455-29 (p. 751)

R. Asher ben Yechiel (c.1250-1327), a student of R. Meir of Rothenburg, was forced to flee his native Germany, eventually seeking asylum in Spain, where in 1305, he was invested as Rabbi of Toledo. Thus, the Ro"sh, as he is referred to in the halachic literature, represents a unique phenomenon: an Aschkenazic halachic authority who has taken up permanent residence in Sepharad, with its very different halachic tradition. What results is an interesting synthesis of the Franco-German and Spanish schools. The collection of his responsa is divided into one hundred and eight groups called Kelalim; the groupings are thematic in nature. These responsa give a most vivid picture conditions of Jewish life in fourteenth-century Spain. See M. Waxman, Vol. II, pp.167-169; EJ, Vol. III, cols. 706-708. The colophon reads: "All the work was completed on Friday, five days in the month of Cheshvan, the year 5368." This would have been one of the last Hebrew books to issue from the press of Zanetti. After 1608 no Hebrew books left this press. Superintendence of the press had passed from Matteo to Daniel Zanetti, and finally to Zanetto (or Zuan) Zanetti. See D. Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy, p. 343