(The Mahari’t). Teshuvoth [responsa]

TRANI, YOSEPH BEN MOSHE.

Constantinople

1604-39

Manuscript in Hebrew, written in a semi-cursive Sephardic hand on paper.

Secretarial manuscript with erasures, corrections and additions by the author R. Yoseph Trani . These include large autograph additions between the responsa ALL OF WHICH ARE SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. These responsa were first published in Constantinople and Venice, in 1642 and 1645. One of the greatest rabbis of his generation, R. Yoseph Trani (1568-1639 - the Mahari’t), was the son of R. Moshe Trani (the Mabi’t). A resident of Safed for a large part of his life, he was placed as the Head of the Yeshivah of the city in 1594, an honor which indicated his ordination by R. Ya’akov Beirav (who attempted to renew the Semichah process). In 1604 the Mahari’t was appointed to the senior Rabbinic post in Constantinople, in essence the singular Halachic authority of the entire Ottoman Empire.