Part I of II. [1], 200 [i.e. 110], 2-66 ff., folio, 312:188 mm., trimmed margins, light age and damp staining, stamps and old hands. A good copy bound in recent wrappers.

 

Responsa on all four parts of the Shulchan Arukh by R. Joseph b. Moses Trani (1568–1639), known as the "Maharit" (Morenu ha-Rav Joseph Trani). He was born in Safed, the youngest son of R. Moses b. Joseph Trani. Joseph, 12 years old when his father died, was taken into the home of R. Solomon Sagis, a Safed scholar, and became his pupil. In 1587, when R. Sagis died, Trani went to Egypt, where he attracted many pupils. After a short time he returned to Safed where he founded and taught in a yeshivah. Following the outbreak of a plague in Safed (1594), he went to Jerusalem, where he did research on the design and plan of the Temple. The resulting work, Zurat ha-Bayit, was lost, but many fragments and quotations from it have been preserved in Derekh ha-Kodesh by R. Hayyim Alfandari (published in Maggid mi-Reshit, Constantinople, 1710). After some time Trani returned to Safed, where, as his father before him, he headed the Sephardi community. In 1599 he was sent by the Safed community to Constantinople, and in 1604 took up permanent residence there. Trani headed a large yeshivah in Constantinople which became a center of Torah for all Turkish Jewry and produced many of the great Turkish rabbis of the 17th century, including R. Hayyim b. Israel Benveniste. Trani was eventually elected chief rabbi of Turkey, in which office he introduced takkanot, established societies, and became renowned for his many charitable acts. However, he took a severe attitude toward the Karaites, who came under his authority according to the law. In addition to Zurat ha-Bayit the following works by Joseph have been published: Talmud novellae on the tractates of Shabbat, Ketubbot, and Kiddushin (Venice, 1645); Zafenat Pane'ah (ibid., 1648), and sermons. Most of his works, which encompassed all branches of Torah, have been lost, among them a supercommentary on R. Elijah Mizrahi's commentary on the Pentateuch and an abridgment of the Arukh of R. Nathan b. Jehiel of Rome.

 

Hebrew Description

... ונתעוררו ר' איצק סאלצבורג נר"ו חתן... (ר' יוסף שט"ה [שטיינהארט]) אב"ד מפה [פיורדא] וה"ה ... ר' יאקב דערן בורג נרו מ"ץ בק"ק פלאס... להדפיס את שו"ת מהרי"ט ספר ראשון וספר שני וחדושי' הלכות פעם שנית... והוגה ... ע"י בקיאי' במלאכה זו... ספר א-ב.

הסכמות: ר' יוסף משטיינהרט, פיורדא, ב מרחשון תקכ"ז; - ספר א ר' יושע העשיל לבוב, שוואבך, טו סיון תקכ"ז; -

ספר א ר' נתנאל אשכנזי ווייל מפראג, קארלסרוא, ה כסליו תקכ"ז. - ספר א ספר א: שנת ו'י'ו'ס'ף' ה'ו'א' ה'ש'ל'י'ט' [תקכ"ח]. [1], ר [צל: קי], ב-סה דף. ספר א: ב-סה דף: "חידושי מהר"י טראני" שנדפסו בויניציאה ת"ה בשם "חדושי גמרא".

ספר ב: על סדר ד' טורים... בפירדא... שנת והיא ת'צ'"ל'ח' [תקכ"ח]. [1], קמה, [2] דף.