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

MEDINA, SAMUEL DE

Abraham Joseph Bat-Sheva

Salonika

1594

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 Our copy is Variant B (see Mehlman 756), whereby the responsum on ff. 127-128 concerning slaves and converts, has been replaced by two responsa (designated nos. 190a and 190b) concerning communal strife.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).

Vinograd, Salonika 130; Mehlman 756

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.