SHIBBOLEI HA-LEKET (PART 1), MANUSCRIPT ON PARCHMENT Zedekiah ben Abraham Anav [Italy, 14th century]

308 leaves, 11 ½ x 8 inches; 292 x 203 mm, pricking on outside, ruled in hardpoint, written in Italian semi-cursive script in black ink, catchwords, earlier pagination in ink, modern foliation in pencil; bottom margin of 42 leaves cropped without loss of text, stain slurring ink in approximately 6 lines of text on fols. 271-272, fol. 304 extended along bottom margin, browning and scattered worming on fols 307-308, moderate discoloration to parchment. Stiff vellum.

The heirs of Moses who divided an estate with Solomon Jedidiah and his wife Stella in December. 5155=1394  (fol. 2r) — Jacob ben Nethanel Norzi [who also purchased Cod. Parm. 3279 in 1497] (owner's note fol. 1v) — Nehemiah (owner's note concerning the division of property with his brother-in law, Moses on December 14, 5348=1587 (fol. 2r) — Judah Zerahiah Azulai, Leghorn, 1818 — Solomon Halberstam (his marginal notes, shelf no. 236)

Hirschfeld (ms. no. 127)

Shibbolei ha-Leket, written in the thirteenth century by Zedekiah ben Abraham Anav, is a classic work of Rabbinic literature. This important text comprises a halakhic compendium on the liturgy and includes numerous explanations of individual prayers, a commentary on the Haggadah and considerable information on the laws regarding the Sabbath, holidays, and fasts. It is the first attempt of codification of Jewish law by an Italian rabbi and it is one of the richest depositories of quotations of rulings by rabbis of the East and of the West. It has an abundance of quotations from the responsa of Rashi and of other French and German authorities. This volume comprises the first part of Shibbolei ha-Leket.   Anav lived in Rome and was alive at the time of the burning of the Talmud in Paris, which he describes in his work (Shibbolei ha-Leket, 263).
This part of Shibbolei ha-Leket was published in 1886 by Solomon Buber. He relates in his introduction that while vacationing in Baden near Vienna in 1882, his friend M. Guedemann lent him for a few days volume two of this manuscript (Montefiore ms. 128, Lot 119) that at that time belonged to Halberstamm. Buber could not use it for the text, but he utilized it for the names occurring in it. S. K. Mirsky published a new edition of the first 130 paragraphs in 1966, but again, he did not use this manuscript for the text. Accordingly, the important textual variants of the present manuscript will have to be included in a future critical edition of this classic.

On fol. 2r there is a poem by Joseph Zarko beginning ha-le-olamim, apparently unpublished. For a collection of Zarko’s poems see Montefiore ms. 367 (Lot 271). On fol. 168v the word Daniel is marked, probably indicating the name of the scribe.

Signed by the censor Luigi da Bologna 1599 (fol. 308v).