Bidspirit auction | IBN Lev, Yoseph ben David

IBN Lev, Yoseph ben David (MaHaRIVa’L).  Shailoth U’Teshuvoth MeHaR’I ibn Lev [responsa]. FIRST EDITION. Three volumes. Vols. I & II issued without a title; vol. III with title surrounded by florets. Various annotations and marginal notes in several early hands. Wide-margined. Light stains in places. Modern uniform calf housed in fitted box. Folio. Vinograd, Salonika 55 & Constantinople 220, 243. Salonika & Constantinople 1557, 1561-65 and 1573. First edition of the first three parts of an influential collection of responsa, that serve as a window into Jewish life of the 16th-century. Born in Macedonia, later settling in Salonika and then Constantinople, the author (1505–80) taught in the yeshiva founded by Doña Gracia (Mendes) Nasi and overall, was one of the great scholars of his time. The Chid’a in his Shem HaGedolim states that three scholars of that generation (all coincidentally named Yoseph) were capable of penning a work of the magnitude of the Beith Yoseph: R. Yoseph Karo, R. Yoseph Taitatzak and R. Yoseph ibn Lev. For bibliographic debate concerning the printing of this multi-volume work, see Mehlman 746-8; Genuzoth Sepharim p. 106, and Areshet Vol. V p. 485.