She'elot 'u-Teshuvot ha-Rashba (Responsa of Solomon ben Adret), Bologna: Company of Silk Weavers, 1539

Estimate

5,000 - 7,000 USD

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Description

231 (16 + 215 [of 216]) leaves (11 ½ x 8 in.; 292 x 203 mm). A wide-margined copy containing both numerical and topical indices (the latter lacking in many copies). Collation: 1-2^{8, 1-22^{8, 23^{7[of 8], 24^{8, 25^{10, 26^{8, 27^{6= 231 leaves. Pagination: [16], [1]-167, 167-210, 214, 213-216. As in all copies, ff. 167-212 mispaginated; lacking only f. 177 (marked 176), provided in smaller photocopy; three leaves in quire 23 provided from another copy. Some dampstaining, mostly marginal, lightly wormed in first and last quires, light soiling on title page and final quire. Censors' inscriptions (Jacob Geraldini, 1555; Caesar Bellosius, n.d.; Laurentius Franguellus, 1575; Renato da Modena, 1626), on verso of final leaf and (Girolamo da Durrallano, 1640) on first title page; library markings [ex-JTS] on first title and verso of final leaf; owner's inscription on first title and first page of index; an eighteenth-century manuscript stub with genealogical information pasted in on f. 47v. Modern boards; titles stamped in gold on spine.}}}}}}}

Literature

Vinograd, Bologna 14.

Catalogue Note

The importance of Solomon ben Abraham ibn Adret's responsa can be traced through their transmission over the ages. Adret (c. 1235-c. 1310), rabbi of Barcelona for forty years and one of the preeminent halakhists and talmudic authorities in medieval Spain, received queries from all parts of the Jewish world including Germany, France, Bohemia, Sicily, Crete, Morocco, Algiers, Palestine and Portugal. In reply Adret wrote more than 3,000 responsa including the 1255 printed here. Their sheer number made them an important halakhic resource and many communities gathered his responsa into special collections and kept them as a source of guidance. Many of his responsa deal with questions of philosophy and the fundamentals of religion. His broad erudition commanded the respect of scholars across the world, while his ability to explain even the most abstruse matters in a concise, clear style, resulted in the dissemination of his writings throughout the diaspora. The first printed collection of Adret's responsa was printed in Rome (c.1469-73), probably the second Hebrew book ever printed.

Adret's responsa constitute a primary source of information for the history of the Jews of his period. During the Maimonidean controversy, the bitter conflict over the influence of philosophy in Judaism, Adret, though leaning heavily towards the traditionalist view, nevertheless adopted a middle course between the warring factions. In the famous ban he proclaimed in Barcelona in 1305, Adret permitted the study of physics and metaphysics from the age of 25, put no restriction at all on the study of astronomy and medicine and sanctioned the reading of Maimonides' works. The correspondence between Adret and the French scholars of Montpelier is provided in this volume on ff. 71r-85v.