She'elot u'Teshuvot (Responsa), Levi ben Jacob ibn Habib, Venice: [Giovanni Grypho], 1565, bound with Sefer ha-Aguddah, Alexander Suslin ha-Kohen of Frankfort, Cracow: Isaac ben Aaron Prostitz, 1571

2 works bound together in one volume, folio (11 ¾ x 7 ¾ in.; 298 x 196 mm). collation:She'elot u'Teshuvot: ()^{4, ()()2, 1-34, 4-446, 454, 468, 47-546, 554=328 leaves; Sefer ha-Aguddah: ()4, 1-416, 424=254 leaves. Woodcut architectural titles, initial word panels and diagrams; title lightly soiled, light marginal dampstains. Contemporary German leather over beveled oak boards, blind-tooled in a panel design with rope-work tools in the frames; soiled and stained, clasps gone, head of spine chipped.}

Solomon ben Judah Heilprin—his inscription on front free endpaper; [Zuslin?] Moses ben Solomon Wetzler—his inscription on front free endpaper; Prager Israelitische Cultus-Gemeinde stamp on front endpaper and title); Kalman Lieben—his signature on front free endpaper

Vinograd, Venice 508, Cracow 32

2 works bound together in one volume, folio (11 ¾ x 7 ¾ in.; 298 x 196 mm). collation: ()4, ()()2, 1-34, 4-446, 454, 468, 47-546, 554=328 leaves; ()4, 1-416, 424=254 leaves, Woodcut architectural titles, initial word panels and diagrams; title lightly soiled, light marginal dampstains. Contemporary German leather over beveled oak boards, blind-tooled in a panel design with rope-work tools in the frames; soiled and stained, clasps gone, head of spine chipped.
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She'elot u'Teshuvot :

The responsa of Levi ben Jacob ibn Habib (Ralbah, c. 1483-1545), the son of Jacob ibn Habib, author of the Ein Ya'akov. Born in Zamora, Spain, Levi was among the Jewish children forcibly converted in Portugal by the order of King Manuel in 1497. The ibn Habib family escaped a year later, finding refuge in Salonika and Levi eventually relocated to Jerusalem where he was the dayyan ha-Memuneh, (chief religious judge), responsible for the organization of the city's intellectual and religious life.

At the end of the volume, several responsa (#145-6 on ff. 266v-276v ) dealing with astronomy and calendrical issues are accompanied by 10 pages of graphs and charts. The volume is completed by appendices comprising Kunteres ha-Semikhah (Treatise on Ordination) on ff. 277r-328v, addressing the historic controversy in which ibn Habib played an important role. Following the attempt by Jacob Berab of Safed to reinstitute semikhah (rabbinical ordination), which had been discontinued for almost a millennium, Levi ibn Habib, as head of the Jerusalem rabbinate wrote the treatise to prove the illegality of Berab's actions.  A caustic controversy arose between Ibn Habib and Berab, and after the latter's death in 1541 the renewed institution of ordination gradually languished into obscurity. Modern scholars have approved Ibn Habib's opposition.

Sefer ha-Aguddah:

Sefer ha-Aguddah is a halakhic digest organized by talmudic tractates. This compendium was written by Alexander Suslin ha-Kohen of Frankfort. Suslin was one of the leading talmudists of Germany in the first half of the fourteenth century; a student of Isaac of Dueren  (Sha'arei Dura, late 13th century), Suslin served as rabbi in Cologne, Worms, and Frankfort. Sefer ha-Aguddah includes novellae and a commentary and collection of halakhot to the minor tractates and to the Mishnayot of the orders Zera'im and Tohorot.  The language is very concise and the purpose of the book was to deliver halakhic rulings in a succinct manner, ignoring the differences of opinion elaborated on in the Talmud. Later halakhic authorities attached great value to this work; Jacob ha-Levi Moellin and Moses Isserles in particular regarded Suslin's decisions as authoritative, and quote from him, although they were aware of his sources.

Despite the Responsa's having been printed in Venice and the Aguddah in Cracow some six years later, the two works share the identical woodcut frame on their title pages. This can be explained by the fact that the printer of the Aguddah, Isaac ben Aaron Prostitz, was formerly employed by the short-lived Venetian press of Giovanni Grypho, whose printer's motto declared "Wisdom without good luck accomplishes little." In the competitive Hebrew book market of the second half of the sixteenth century in Venice, Grypho could not compete with the great presses of di Gara and Bragadini and closed his press after producing only 10 volumes. Prostitz acquired all of his former employer's typographical equipment, including frames, ornaments and type, which he used over the next several decades to give his own press a decidedly Venetian flavor.