HILKHOT SHEHITAH (LAWS OF RITUAL SLAUGHTER), RABBI MEIR BEN JACOB MEIRI, FERRARA: SAMUEL IBN ASKARA ZAREFATI, [CA. 1552]

The first edition of a rare halakhic handbook.

Hebrew printing in Ferrara began in 1477 when Abraham ben Hayyim the Dyer (dei Tintori) of Pesaro issued Rabbi Levi Gersonides’ commentary on Job and part of Rabbi Jacob ben Asher’s Yoreh de‘ah. Nearly seventy-five years later, Samuel Ibn Askara Zarefati and Abraham Ibn Usque established Hebrew presses in the city, issuing a total of about thirty titles between 1551 and 1557, including the present lot.

Rabbi Meir ben Jacob Meiri is known primarily as the author of two works: a guide to the laws of ritual slaughter (Hilkhot shehitah) and inspection of animal lungs (Hilkhot ha-rei’ah), apparently collectively entitled Ya’ir nativ, and a short Hebrew grammar (first edition: Sabbioneta, 1554). The current lot comprises the first part of Ya’ir nativ, on the laws of ritual slaughter. A second edition of the book would appear in Sabbioneta in 1554 and an abridged version would be published the following year in the same city.

Provenance

Ephraim Hai ben Mashiah ben Moses Pascoli [...] December 10, [5]323 [1562] (?) (f. [8r-v])

Literature

Abramo Pesaro, Memorie storiche sulla Comunità israelitica ferrarese (Ferrara: Premiata Tipografia Sociale, 1878), 23.

Vinograd, Ferrara 9