(RaSHBa’TZ). Sepher HaTaSHBe’TZ [responsa]. Appended: Chut HaMeshulash [responsa by later Algerian authorities: Solomon Duran, Solomon Serour and Abraham ibn Tawah]

DURAN, SHIMON BEN TZEMACH

Naphtali Herz Levi Rophe

Amsterdam

1738-41

FIRST EDITION. Four parts in one volume. Title within engraved architectural border depicting the Biblical personages of Moses, Aaron, David and Solomon. Divisional title in ornamental woodcut featuring lions, foliage and crown. Two other divisional titles in typographical borders. Bound in original “Fish-skin” tinted vellum binding with tooled floral decoration.

Vinograd, Amsterdam 1490.

Beautiful 18th-century Dutch tinted vellum binding. In 1391, R. Shimon b. Zemach (1361-1444) fled his native Spain (Isle of Majorca) for Algiers, where he became one of the foremost halachic decisors of North African Jewry. Popular lore has suggested that in the merit of the author’s deep respect for holy books, his own works were always beautifully bound. Interestingly, all copies of this book were ornamented and decorated in such a way that no two are the same.