Shailoth Uteshuvoth [responsa]

LEVI, JACOB BEN ISRAEL.

Giovanni Calioni

Venice

1614

FIRST EDITION. An attractive, wide-margined copy. Previous owners’ signatures and inscription on title including: Rabbi Yehudah ben Harav Yochanan Ghiron of Florence (dated 1732) with marginalia in the same hand comparing the responsa of this first edition with the second edition of 1632.

Vinograd, Venice 1079.

A member of the ancient Beth-HaLevi family, Jacob grew up in Salonika where he studied Talmud with R. Aaron ibn Chasson and philosophy with R. David ibn Shushan. He served as rabbi of the Greek town of Xanthe before settling in Venice where his responsa were broadly endorsed by the great rabbis of the Mediterranean basin. See EJ, XI col. 83. The Ghiron family stemmed from Gerona, Spain. The signatory of this particular copy, Yehudah, was Rabbi of Florence from 1719-38, succeeding his father Yochanan (1646-1716) who was Rabbi of this beautiful Tuscan city for 34 years. See EJ vol. VII, col. 547-48.