MORDECHAI BEN HILLEL HAKOHEN

Jacob Marcaria

Riva di Trento

1559

SEPHER RAV MORDECHAI. ff. 192, 45. FIRST SEPARATE EDITION. Divisional title historiated. * Bound with: GERONDI, NISSIM. (Ra”N), Chidushei Ha-Rav Rabeinu Nissim [index according to tractates of Talmud and Maimonides]. Prepared by Joseph Ottolenghi, ff. 21. FIRST EDITION

VInograd, Riva 9 and 6

THE FIRST SEPARATE EDITION OF THE MORDECHAI. Earlier editions had been appended to Alfasi (see M. Benayahu, Hebrew Printing at Cremona (1971), p. 114). R. Mordechai ben Hillel Hakohen (1240?-1298) was the outstanding disciple of R. Meir (MaHaRa”M) of Rothenburg. His gigantic compendium, arranged according to the tractates of the Talmud, is a rich repository of the halachic traditions of Aschkenaz. See A. Siev, ”Hagahot ha-Rama al Ha-Mordechai”, in Hagut Ivrit be-America, Vol. I (1972), pp. 426-439; A. Halperin, “Sefer ha-Mordechai bi-Re'i Hadpasotav” in: Iyunim be-Sifrut Chazal...Melamed Festschrift (1982), pp. 323-338; EJ, Vol. XII, cols. 311-4 The editor of the second work, R. Joseph Ottolenghi (d. 1570), was the Rabbi of Cremona and provided much of the scholarship found in the Riva di Trento publications. The printer, Jacob Marcaria thanks him profusely and gives him the honorific title of “Ha-Gaon” in both the title and introduction