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Bidding Information
Lot #    18552
Auction End Date    8/21/2007 10:12:00 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Hiddushei Bava Batra
Title (Hebrew)    חידושי בבא בתרא
Author    R. Joseph ben Meir ha-Levi ibn Migash
City    Amsterdam
Publisher    Nathanel Foa
Publication Date    1702
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description		    First edition. [1], 52 ff. quarto, 176:144 mm., light age staining, wide margins, stamps. A very good copy bound in modern cloth boards.
          
Detailed
Description		    First edition of these novellae on tractate Bava Batra by Joseph ben Meir ha-Levi ibn Migash, considered the greatest Spanish talmudic scholar of the third generation of Spanish rabbis. The title page informs that ibn Migash was a student of the Rif and the teacher of the Rambam. It is dated “the garden of the king’s palace ביתן (462 = 1702)” (Esther 1:5). On the title page is the famed Foa press mark, two erect lions about a palm tree set within an elaborate crest. There is a forward from the printer and then the text, in two columns in rabbinic type. R. Joseph ben Meir ha-Levi ibn Migash (1077–1141) studied first under R. Isaac ben Baruch Albalia, and at the age of 12 went to Lucena where he studied under Alfasi for 14 years. His teacher encouraged him, ordained him as rabbi and greatly honored him, even nominating him his successor as head of the yeshivah, though his own son was a talmudic scholar. Ibn Migash occupied this post for 38 years, until his death. Ibn Migash enjoyed an outstanding reputation among his contemporaries. Maimon, the father of Moses Maimonides, was apparently among his many pupils, and Maimonides, especially in his novellae on the Talmud, frequently relies upon the traditions of Ibn Migash, which, as he states, he had received from his father. In his introduction to his commentary on the Mishnah, he says of him, "The understanding of that man in Talmud was awe-inspiring... so that it could almost be said of him that never before had there been his like." Maimonides' attachment to Ibn Migash is so strong that for a long time he was erroneously thought to have been his pupil. R. Judah Halevi, from youth the friend of Ibn Migash, composed poems of praise in his honor, and it was he who formulated the letter to the scholars of Provence in which Ibn Migash sought an acquaintance with them and their teachings. This letter is the earliest extant document on the ties between the centers of learning in Provence and Spain. Very little of Ibn Migash's work is extant. His novellae to Bava Batra (Amsterdam, 1702) and Shevu’ot (Salonika, 1759) have been published, but his commentary must have embraced at least half of the Talmud, and even the portion published is not complete in itself. His novellae to Bava Batra are quoted more extensively and fully in the works of other rishonim, and are found in superior form in the Shitah Mekubbezet to that tractate, and in Aghmati's work, Sefer ha-Ner. A relatively small number of his responsa (translated from the original Arabic) have been published (Salonika, 1786); some are included in the works of others (e.g., in the responsa Pe'er ha-Dor, Amsterdam, 1765), and more are extant in manuscript. He is known to have composed a book of comments (which is not, however, extant) on the Hilkhot ha-Rif of his teacher. The works of Ibn Migash decisively influenced the study of Talmud in Spain and Provence. Meir Abulafia, who summed up the teaching of the Spanish scholars until the generation of Nahmanides incorporates—mostly anonymously—many of Ibn Migash's comments in his work. So does Nahmanides, who transmitted them to his pupils and followers, such as R. Solomon ben Abraham Adret and R. Yom Tov ben Abraham Ishbili (the Ritba). They were well known in Provence, too, already being quoted by Abraham b. Isaac, who frequently relies upon them in his responsa. Meir, the son of Joseph ibn Migash, was also a well-known scholar in Spain; his son Isaac served with Meir Abulafia on the bet din of Toledo in 1205. Among Meir's important pupils was Jonathan ha-Kohen of Lunel.
          
Paragraph 2    להנשר הגדול הרב רבינו יוסף הלוי אבן מגש ז"ל ... שנת גנת ב'י'ת'ן' המלך

מעבר לשער: "דברי המדפיס ... שנצטערתי במלאכה זו להיות ההעתק מוטעה ומשובש ... מצאתי סביב לגליון דברים נראים נוספים ולא ידעתי אם הם דברי הרב או לאו ... לכן הדפסתים ע"ש [על שם] <תוספת> ועל הכל ציינתי דף ועמוד מהש"ס ...". דף נא, ב-נב: שמועה מפרק הזהב, מציעא דף מד ע"ב. כתב היד שממנו נדפס הספר לא היה שלם, ויש בו רק כחמישית מהחיבור. מהדורה רחבה, שנוספו לה השלמות מתוך "שיטה מקובצת" לר' בצלאל אשכנזי ומתוך "ספר הנר" לר' זכריה אגמאתי, יצאה לאור בירושלים תש"ם. כל ההוצאות עד להוצאת תש"ם נדפסו לפי ההוצאה הנוכחית.

          
Reference
Description		    EJ; CD-EPI 0106251
        
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Listing Classification
Period
  
18th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Holland:    Checked
  
Subject
Novellae:    Checked
  
Characteristic
First Editions:    Checked
Language:    Hebrew
  
Manuscript Type
  
Kind of Judaica