(RIBa”SH). Teshuvoth Harav [responsa]

ISAAC B”R SHESHETH PERFET

Eliezer Soncino

Constantinople

1546

FIRST EDITION . Title within four-part ornamental border. A wide margined copy. Marginalia.

Vinograd, Const. 193; Yaari, Const. 145; (both Vinograd and Yaari offer erroneous pagination, see J. Hacker, Areshet V, p. 483); Adams I-179

A wide-margined copy in uncommonly fine condition. One of the leading scholars of his day, the Riba”sh was a disciple of R. Nissim Gerondi and a colleague of Don Hasdai Crescas. He left his native Spain in 1391 when the great massacres broke out and settled in Algiers. His Teshuvoth Harav contains 518 responsa, dealing with all phases of Halachic law. Unlike his predecessors, the Riba”sh wrote his responsa at length, basing his decisions on specific documentation from the sources. The collection is particularly important for the social history of the Jews in 14th-century Spain and North Africa. The work was originally sold in single gatherings and distributed during prayers on the Sabbath. Certain rabbis were outraged by this practice which they felt desecrated the sanctity of the day. See S. Assaf, Mekoroth u-Mechkarim, (1946) pp. 255-56 for a responsa concerning this matter. This was last book printed by Soncino in his Turkish sojourn.