HALAKHIC CUSTOMS AND DISCOURSES, MANUSCRIPT ON PARCHMENT Seligmann Bing (Seligmann Oppenheim or ha-Levi Zion) [15th century]

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Description

155 leaves (one blank), 14 x 9 inches; 360 x 225 mm, written in an Ashkenazic semi-cursive script, modern foliation in pencil; extensively repaired with loss of text on most leaves, very dampstained, library stamp in red on first and last leaves. Calf-backed marbled boards; warped, worn.

Provenance

Samuel David Luzzatto — Solomon Halberstam (shelf no. 176)

Literature

Hirschfeld (ms. no. 146); Mahara”z Bing (Jerusalem, 1985), in which parts of the work were published from this manuscript; A. Berliner, Hebräische Bibliographie, 9 (1869), pp. 81-86; Y.Y. Yovel, in Zion, 48 (1983), p.179.

Catalogue Note

This volume is an autograph copy of Seligmann Bing’s halakhic customs and discourses. The author, also known as Seligmann Oppenheim or ha-Levi Zion, was a pupil of Jacob Moelln (Maharil) and officiated as a rabbi in Bingen, Frankfurt, and Oppenheim in the middle of the fifteenth century. In the present manuscript, written and corrected by the author himself, Seligmann Bing cites Talmudic sources and opinions of early and contemporary authorities. Hirschfeld lists many of these sources in his catalog. The author includes the Seder shel Pesach (fol. 75r), as well as several illustrations; on fol. 101r there is a sketch of a building, and on fol. 82r there is a drawing of hands, in order to illustrate the rules of hand-washing. Another part of this manuscript may be found in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Opp. 93.

Seligamnn composed several other works extant in manuscripts, among them Sefer Sha’arei Zion, laws of divorce and several responsa that have been copied in various compilations; he is mentioned in a commentary on Ruah Hen in Montefiore ms. 303 (Lot 260). In his works, Seligmann refers to other treatises that he authored but these have since been lost.