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An outline of forms and documents by R. Eliezer Melli. R. Melli served as rabbi in Venice, and was, in addition, a bibliographer and linguist. The text of the title page, with verses, and their source, in the upper and lower portions of the pillared architectural frame, states “it is a collection of documents used by the children of Israel according to the law of Moses and halakhah.” On the verso of the title page Melli dedicates the book to Judah ben Don Samuel Abrabanel and his mother Signora Benvineda. Li-Cal Chefetz was prepared for the Abrabanel family, who, with their widespread business dealings, required Melli’s assistance in preparing promissory notes.
Li-Cal Chefetz is a collection of thirty eight documents to be used for various occasions. The first two documents deal with shiduchim (matchmaking), followed by deeds for a variety of business and personal transactions, among them engagement, marriage contract, renting and selling of houses, partnerships with and without witnesses, loans, transactions, deposits, authorization, arbitration, refusal of marriage by a minor, bill of divorce, halitzah, levirate marriage contract, gifts, gift of a dying person, and guardianship. A number of these documents are reprinted in R. Judah Zarko of Rhodes’ Yefeh Nof (c. 1572). The text is in a single column in rabbinic letters excepting headers and initial words. Marginalia indicates which names are to be inserted and where in a document.
The title page names Daniel ben Cornelius Adelkind as the printer, that is, he was the son of the renowned printer, Israel Cornelius Adelkind. Named after Daniel Bomberg, this Daniel worked for several presses in Venice and at least thirteen books from 1549 to 1552 bear his name as the printer and/or publisher. Much of the publishing done by Daniel Adelkind appears to have been at the instigation and with the assistance of his father, whom he frequently mentions in the colophons of his book, although Cornelius is not mentioned in li-Cal Chefetz. |
