Physical Description

Only edition. [5], 53, [1]; [2], 71; [2], 29; [2], 55 ff., folio, 317:195 mm., wide margins, usual age and damp staining. A very good copy bound in contemporary leather over wood boards, rubbed and split.

Detail Description

Four volumes of responsa by R. Raphael b. Eliezer Meldola (1645–1748), Italian rabbi; fifth child of Eleazar Meldola by his wife Reina Senior. He was originally named Samuel Jacob Meldola, but on his recovery from a dangerous illness his name was changed to Raphael. He was born in Leghorn, and continued in the tradition of his family of Sephardi rabbis and scholars. The family originated in the 15th century in Meldola, northern Italy. Members of the family settled in Leghorn, entering thus into the tradition of Sephardi life. For the next 200 years they provided rabbis, printers, and leaders to the Sephardi communities in Holland, Italy, France, and England.

R. Raphael was elected rabbi of Pisa in 1722. In 1729 he was elected to succeed R. Isaac da Costa as chief rabbi of Bayonne and St. Esprit, and he remained Hakham of these congregations until 1741, when he returned to Leghorn.

R. Meldola was the author of a large number of theological and ethical works, the most important being Mayim Rabbim, and his responsa, in several volumes, which gained for him a European reputation, and which were afterward published by his son R. David in Amsterdam. He married in 1701 Rachel Meldola, the daughter of his uncle Abraham, by whom he had seven children. His third son, R. David, and his youngest son, R. Moses Hezekiah, became very distinguished rabbis. His second son, Abraham, born in Leghorn 1705, was a noted typographer.

References