Manuscript, large compilation of responsa of (Babylonian) Ge'onim and of Rishonim (early Sephardi and Ashkenazi sages). [Handsome cursive Ashkenazi script. Europe, ca. 15th century].
More than 700 responsa, two paginations. Part 1 contains 394 responsa (until Leaf 57/b), most written by Babylonian Ge'onim. Part 2 contains another 311 responsa, primarily by sages of European countries at the beginning of the time of the Rishonim and a few from the time of the Ge'onim.
The responsa by Babylonian Ge'onim include the following: Rav Natronai Gaon, Rav Amram Gaon, Rav Sa'adia Gaon, Rav Shmuel son of Chofni Gaon, Rav Shrira Gaon, Rav Hai Gaon, etc. The responsa of leading Sephardi and Ashkenazi Rishonim include: R. Moshe son of Chanoch, R. Chanoch, R. Yosef Ibn Abitur, R. Meshulam son of Klonimus, Rabbeinu Gershom Me'or HaGola, Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam.
Many of these responsa were printed in the book Sha'arei Tzedek (Salonika, 1792) according to another manuscript. This manuscript reached the possession of the scholar Shadal, Shmuel David Luzzatto (1800-1865), who noted parallel responsa printed in the book Sha'arei Tzedek on the sheets of this manuscript. At the end (page 140/a) is a handwritten inscription: "Chart of responsa which I did not find in the book Sha'arei Tzedek". [Shadal copied the first page in the same format - the leaf with this copy is bound at the beginning of the manuscript]. Shadal described the value of this manuscript in his book Beit HaOtzar (page 47/a): "This manuscript is much superior to the printed version because it is accurate and contains very few errors whereas the printed version is full of inaccuracies". Shazal printed a few of the responsa in this manuscript in the book Beit HaOtzar and in the Kerem Chemed periodical.
Other responsa in this manuscript are parallel to those printed in Sefer HaYashar by Rabbeinu Tam and in other books, however, they were printed from a different source. In his two books, T'shuvot Chachmei Tzorfat V'Lotir (Vienna, 1881) and Tshuvot Ge'onei Mizrach U'Ma'arav (Berlin, 1888), Yo'el Miller (1827-1895) printed all the responsa contained in this manuscript which had not been printed until his days. On the sheets of this manuscript, Miller refers to other places in which the responsa were previously printed.
Prof. Avraham Grossman, in an article devoted to this manuscript (Atara L'Chaim - Studies in the Talmud and Medieval Rabbinic..., Jerusalem, 2000, p. 275), writes of the value of this manuscript even after its content has been printed in various publications: "…The author has copied various anthologies which were compiled in the lifetime of their authors. In contrast to many copiers of the Middle Ages, he generally did not omit the questions or shortened them, rather he quoted them ad verbum… These responsa were published… by Y. Miller… however, the way they were published is sometimes misleading. Miller repeatedly changed the order of the responsa from how they appeared, precipitating difficulties in identifying the writers of the anonymous responsa. The copier frequently brought sections of the responsa according to the sources from which they were gleaned, and explicitly attests to completing copying one source before copying another. Therefore, upon studying these responsa, the researcher must revert to the manuscript itself".
The researchers of this manuscript note that it is unique among Rishonim's responsa in that the responsa [of Part 2] were copied in their original order, small segments for each sage, and were not fused according to their content and were not shortened.
The manuscript clearly depicts the Torah wisdom of its scribe, who perceived the content and importance of the responsa. Accordingly, we find space left by the scribe for supplementing missing content from other sources. In some places, he left a large blank space and noted on the sheet "Here much is lacking" (page 29/b) or "Here is lacking" (page 33/a), apparently intending to fill in the missing parts. On page 22/b he writes: "Here I omitted much of this phrasing". In some places, the scribe notes on the sheet: "The question is lacking here, it is written in Arabic and I did not write it" (page 106/b, see also pages 107/b, 109/a, 115/a).
At the top of the first page is a faded signature or ownership inscription which we could not decipher. Glued onto the last leaf is a piece of paper with the beginning of a shtar "Zichron Edut" (testimony) from 1480 [probably from the city of Piove di Sacco (North Italy), where the Arba'a Turim was first printed in 1475], with the confirmation of "The widow Ms. Bayla" that she received all her expenses which she paid for her son-in-law "R. Yehuda son of R. Menachem" and his family.
[1], [141] leaves. 29 cm. Handsome writing in brown ink (slightly faded). Wide margins. Good-fair condition. Wear and stains. Restorations to the corners of some leaves. Minor worming. At the end of pages 122/b and 128/b, Miller wrote "Lacking leaf". Leaf 131 is mounted on a paper for restoration. Stamps of the Montefiore Library on a new, half leather, elegant professional binding.
Provenance:
1. R. Avraham Cracovia of Venice "Son of esteemed rabbis" (according to Shadal in Beit HaOtzar).
2. The sage Shmuel David Luzzatto (Shadal), Manuscript 92.
3. The scholar Shlomo Zalman Chaim Halberstam, Manuscript 179.
4. Montefiore Collections - London, Manuscript 98.
The numeration of the responsa is written in a different handwriting. At the beginning of Part 2, the responsa are numbered in the wrong order, due to faulty binding of the manuscript at the time of the numeration. Later, the leaves were correctly arranged by Shadal as he writes in Beit HaOtzar (page 56/a).
Another part of this same manuscript is the Montefiore Manuscript 102, sold by Sotheby's in October 2004, Lot no. 95. In the Sotheby's catalog and in the catalog of the NLI, the manuscript is listed as incomplete (they state that only the section from Siman 312 survived). However, the manuscript offered here is the first part of the aforementioned manuscript which endured in its entirety and which ends at Siman 311. In his book Beit HaOtzar (page 47/b), Shadal writes that he divided the manuscript into two volumes: "…I separated them from the rest, and gathered the 139 leaves into one book, and the remaining 119 leaves into another book".
Literature: S.D. Luzzatto, Beit HaOtzar, Lishka 1 (Lemberg, 1847), from page 46/b and on; Y. Miller, Chachmei Tzorfat V'Lutir responsa (Vienna, 1881), introduction: A. Grossman, responsa of early Spanish sages preserved in Montefiore Manuscript 98, Atara L'Chaim - Studies in the Talmud and Medieval Rabbinic Literature in Honor of Professor Haim Zalman Dimitrovsky ...Jerusalem, 2000), pp. 274-282; S. Emanuel, Shivrei Luchot - Lost books of the Ba'alei HaTosfot (Jerusalem, 2007), pp. 273-274.