TESHUVOT SHE’ELOT (RESPONSA), PARTS 1-3, RABBI JOSEPH IBN LEV, [SALONIKA AND] CONSTANTINOPLE: JOSEPH AND SOLOMON BENEI ISAAC JABEZ AND HAYYIM BEN SAMUEL ASHKENAZI [HELICZ], [CA. 1557]-1573

The first edition of the first three parts of an influential collection of responsa.

Rabbi Joseph Ibn Lev (Maharival; 1505-1580) was born in Monastir (now Bitola, Macedonia), though little else is known of his early life until 1534 when he moved to Salonika, where he spent a very troubled two decades embroiled in conflict and where he lost two sons under tragic circumstances. After relocating again in 1550 to Constantinople, he was appointed teacher in the yeshiva founded by Doña Gracia Nasi.

Ibn Lev’s responsa were printed over the course of about forty years beginning during the author’s lifetime and continuing after his death. Part one was issued in Salonika circa 1557 by Joseph ben Isaac Jabez; part two in Constantinople in 1561-1565 by Solomon ben Isaac Jabez and Hayyim ben Samuel Ashkenazi (Helicz); part three in Constantinople in 1573 by Joseph and Solomon together; and part four in Kuruçeşme circa 1598 by Joseph ben Isaac Ashkeloni. In addition to responsa, these volumes include Ibn Lev’s novellae on several Talmudic tractates (Ketubbot, Gittin, Bava kamma, Bava batra, Shevu‘ot, and Avodah zarah). The present lot includes volumes 1-3; the full set would appear together for the first time in Amsterdam in 1726.

Ibn Lev’s writings serve as a window onto contemporary Jewish life in the sixteenth century. For example, at the instigation of Doña Gracia and her nephew Joseph Nasi, Ibn Lev compiled a responsum in which he supported the banning of trade with Ancona and the taking of reprisals against the papal domains, in retaliation for the actions of Pope Paul IV against the conversos of Ancona.