She’erith Yoseph [on Talmudic methodology]

IBN VERGA, JOSEPH

Tommaso Ruffinelli

Mantua

1593

Second edition. Scattered Hebrew marginalia in an old hand

Vinograd, Mantua 186

Although Mantua was comparatively liberal in its treatments of resident Jews, Hebrew printers were obliged to undertake their work at the presses of Christian printers who had secured a monopoly of the right to issue Hebrew books. (See D. Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy, pp. 324-5 and 333). The author, who lived in Turkey, was the son of Solomon ibn Verga, author of the historical chronicle, Shevet Yehudah. On the title, the author boasts that he assembled many Talmudic principles not included in the earlier works on Talmudic methodology such as Sepher Kerithoth by Samson of Chinon and Halichoth Olam by Isaiah Halevi.