(The MaHaRSHa”L). Chochmath Shlomo [corrections and comments on text of the Babylonian Talmud and commentaries of Rashi and Tosafoth]

LURIA, SOLOMON.

Isaac Prostitz

Cracow

(1582)

FIRST EDITION . Many geometric diagrams. Includes nine blank divisional leaves (unrecorded by Vinograd)

Vinograd, Cracow 78; Mehlman 751; St. Cat. Bodl. 6951:1 (ed. rarissima.)

EXCEPTIONALLY RARE. The Chochmath Shlomo records the MaHaRSHa”L’s comments as were noted in his personal copy of the Talmud, wherein he critically analyzed Bomberg’s text against various Talmudic manuscripts in his possession. These corrections and comments are now a part of all standard Talmudic editions. However later publishers greatly abridged and emended the Chochmath Shlomo, removing the publisher’s foreword, the introductions by the Maharsha”l’s sons Wolf and Yechiel, approbations and other matter. The author, R. Solomon Luria (1510? -1574), was arguably the greatest Polish rabbi of his day - alongside his younger contemporary and relative, Moses Isserles - the Rem”a (of whom he was highly critical). The MaHaRSHa”L is valued for his precise, critical corrections of text, and the clarity and order he brings to the erudite presentation of his novellae. Regarding some controversy concerning the approbations to this work, see R.N.N. Rabinowitz, Mamar Al Hadfasath HaTalmud (pp. 62-3).