Ma’ayan Ganim

ARCHIVOLTI, SAMUEL D’

Alvise Bragadin

Venice

1553

FIRST EDITION. Three-crown printer’s device on title (Ya’ari no. 18). Woodcut vignette of a water-fountain repeated several times

Vinograd, Venice 456

Containing some 25 letters, including love letters, written in metrical form designed to serve as templates for students of this classic literary genre. Ma’ayan Ganim contains revolutionary ideas concerning women and Torah study. The Author reasons that the prohibition of teaching Torah to women was directed at a girl's father, but if a woman should take upon herself Torah study, she should be encouraged to do so. (See Ma'ayan Ganim, ff. 44-45). This opinion was cited by R. Baruch Epstein in his works Torah Temimah and Mekor Baruch. Regarding several scholars not familiar with the original citation - no doubt due to the rarity of this edition - see D. Rabinowitz, "Rayna Batya and Other Learned Women: A Re-evaluation of Rabbi... Epstein's Sources," in: Tradition, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Spring 2001), pp. 55-69 (esp. n. 51)