Only edition. 4, [1], 5-49, [3] ff., quarto, 190:147 mm., wide margins, minor paper repairs to upper-inner margins on several ff., light age and damp staining. A good copy bound in later marbled paper boards, spine split.

Responsa and halakhic novellae. R. Jacob ben Elhanan Heilbronn (roth century) was born in Italy, studied in Prague, and traveled through central Europe and Italy, serving as rabbi in several communities, before finally settling in Padua, Italy. He was a mathematician as well as a highly regarded Talmudic scholar, as can be seen from the esteem in which he was held by his correspondents and in the approbations to his work. His brother was R. Joseph ben Elhanan Heilbronn, author of Em ha-Yeled (Prague, 1597; See 16th Cent. 2:872-873) and other works.

The title page of Nahalat Yaakov has a six-part frame comprised of floral patterns. The text states that Nahalat Yaakov is responsa on halakhic mat­ters (dinim) concerning monetary issues, dietary laws (issur ve-heter), and commentary on vari­ous subjects in Tosafot and Rashi. These were col­lected and assembled from "elderly rabbis רבנן קשישי (Berakhot 30a, 46b) who were in his daysת" and to whom he submitted queries and received responses, טו"ב (17) in number and enumerated by name on the following page. The title page has the Hebrew date שפ"ג ([5]383) and the Arabic numeral date 1622, indicating that it was printed in the final months of 1622, when the new Jewish year has begun and the secular year had not yet concluded.

The verso of the title page is blank. Folio 2a has the names of the rabbis, all distinguished, with whom R. Heilbronn corresponded, and whose responses make up a substantial portion of Nahalat Yaakov. Among them are R. Abraham Menahem Kohen Rapa Porto (Rapaport), Judah Katzenellenbogen, Avigdor Cividal, Mordecai Jaffe (Levush), and Isaiah Horowitz (Shelah), the last, along with R. Kalonymus ben Samuel ha-Kohen, providing approbations. There is an introduction in a single column in rabbinic type from R. Heilbronn, who writes that" 'Nahalat Yaakov (the heritage of Jacob, Isaiah 58:14) your father: this is my portion from all my labors and exertions:' He entitles it Nahalat Yaakov for two reasons: it is all that he has accomplished to be an inheritance to the children of Jacob; and secondly, all will see that in it are "words of delight; [and words of truth] written in proper form:' (Ecclesiastes 12:10). The text follows, set in two columns in square type. The volume concludes with an index.

R.Heilbronn's other works include Dinim ve-Seder (Seder Melihah), a Yiddish treatise on-laws pertaining to the salting of meat, and concluding with an elegy for R. Avigdor Zuidal (Venice, 1602); Shoshannat Yaakov (Venice, 1623, see below), introductory arithmetic and mathematic puzzles, together with R. Eliezer ha-Gadol's Orhot Hayyim (Venice, 1623); and a translation into Italian of R. Benjamin Slonik of Grodnos Yiddish Seder Mitzvot Nashim (Venice, 1606).

Hebrew Description

אשר חבר... ר' (יהושע) יעקב היילפרון והמה שאלות ותשובות...

רוב התשובות הן של רבני הדור, שהשיבו לשאלות המחבר. שמותיהם של המשיבים בראש הספר. בטופס שלפנינו נשארו כמה עמודים חלקים: דף כו,ב; מא,א; מב,ב; מג,א; מד,ב. בטופס שבספריית נ' בן-מנחם לא נשאר חלק אלא דף כו,ב. על שינויים טיפוגראפיים בטפסים שונים, עיין: י' ריבקינד, דיקדוקי ספרים, ספר היובל לכבוד אלכסנדר מארכס, נוירק תש"י, עמ' תכט. הטפסים שלפנינו דומים לטופס שזח"ה והשורה שנשמטה מטופס זולצברגר נדפסה בטעות בשולי דף יז,ב (בנוסח שונה): שאינו יכול לאחוז בכנפות הארץ ולנער התמורות ממנה.

References

17th Century Hebrew Book, Marvin Heller, pp 416-7; Bibliography of the Hebrew Book 1470-1960 #000137810; Vinograd, Padua 4