R. Simeon Kayyara came from Bozrah in Babylonia, as is attested by Hai Gaon. The city of Bozrah is mentioned twice in Halakhot Gedolot (in Hilkhot Hallah and in Hilkhot Eruvin) and was under the spiritual authority of Sura. Indeed, many of the laws and customs mentioned in the work conform to those of Sura, and several of its legal decisions are cited in the name of geonim of Sura.

Marco Antonio Giustiniani , (fl. 16th century), printer of Hebrew books in Venice, Venetian patrician. His master printer Cornelius Adelkind printed a fine edition of the Babylonian Talmud (1546–51). Soon, this very active press faced a formidable competitor in the house of Bragadini which issued Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, with the notes of Meir Katzenellenbogen. Giustiniani then printed the full text of that code without R. Meir's notes. The mutual recriminations that the rivals engaged in at the Papal Court ultimately resulted in the confiscation and burning of all Hebrew books (1553).