Hilkhot sheḥiṭah / me-et Avraham ben Ḥayim Ḳloizner ; ʿim hagahot. Sheloshim ṿe-shishah sheʿarim / me-et Elʿazar ben Yehudah mi-Germaiza ; ʿim hagahot. Hilkhot ṭerefot be-ḳitsur. Birkhot Maharam ;ʿim hagahot. Hilkhot nidah ; Shaʿare Dura / me-et Yitsḥaḳ ben Meʾir mi-Dura ; ʿim hagahot]. [הלכות שחיטה / מאת אברהם בן חיים קלויזנר ; עם הגהות. שלשים וששה שערים / מאת אליעזר בן יהודה מגרמיזה ; עם הגהות.הלכות טריפות בקצור. ברכות מהר׳׳ם ; עם הגהות. הלכות נידה ; שערי דורא / מאת יצחק בן מאיר מדורא ; עם הגהות]. [Collection of medieval Ashkenazic works with commentaries on laws and traditions concerning ritual slaughter, ritually unfit foods, benedictions, and menstruating women].
Details
Type of record: Archive
Title: Hilkhot sheḥiṭah / me-et Avraham ben Ḥayim Ḳloizner ; ʿim hagahot. Sheloshim ṿe-shishah sheʿarim / me-et Elʿazar ben Yehudah mi-Germaiza ; ʿim hagahot. Hilkhot ṭerefot be-ḳitsur. Birkhot Maharam ;ʿim hagahot. Hilkhot nidah ; Shaʿare Dura / me-et Yitsḥaḳ ben Meʾir mi-Dura ; ʿim hagahot]. [הלכות שחיטה / מאת אברהם בן חיים קלויזנר ; עם הגהות. שלשים וששה שערים / מאת אליעזר בן יהודה מגרמיזה ; עם הגהות.הלכות טריפות בקצור. ברכות מהר׳׳ם ; עם הגהות. הלכות נידה ; שערי דורא / מאת יצחק בן מאיר מדורא ; עם הגהות]. [Collection of medieval Ashkenazic works with commentaries on laws and traditions concerning ritual slaughter, ritually unfit foods, benedictions, and menstruating women].
Classmark: MS ROTH/320
Creator(s): (scribe); (author); Eleazar ben Judah of Worms (1176 (ca.)-1238)(author); ; Dueren, Isaac ben Meir(author)
Date(s): [15th century]
Language: Hebrew
Size and medium: 127 leaves : vellum; illustrations
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/115642
Description
Hebrew title supplied by cataloguer partly following headings and completion formulas on folios 13r, 36r, 36v, and 53r. English title supplied by cataloguer.
Variant titles:
Ḳovets ba-halakhah u-minhagim Ashkenaziyim. קובץ בהלכה ומנהגים אשכנזיים.
Hilkhot bediḳah.
Hilkhot ṭrefot. הלכות טרפות.
36 sheʿarim. שלושים ושישה שערים.
Hilkhot berakhot. הלכות ברכות.
Isur ṿe-heter.
Summary:
Luxury manuscript comprising halakhic works by Central-European Ashkenazic authorities of the 13th–14th century with hagahot ascribed mostly to rabbis from the same geo-cultural zone; copied by Aryeh Ḥalfan Tsarfati (see below Scribal information for colophon) on fine white vellum (hair and flesh side distinguishable) with flourished ornamentation around the first words on folios 1r and 53v. The manuscript shows relatively few traces of censorship (some cancellations) but contains the signatures of 5 censors active in Italian cities and territories in the 16th and first half of the 17th century (see below Censors).
Contents:
1. folios 1r–13r: [הלכות שחיטה] by Avraham ben Ḥayim Ḳloizner (at end of text: סליק מהרא׳׳ק); text beginns with כל המומחין מוחזקין הן ושוחטין לכתחלה; with commentaries (הגהות) at the margins from the bet midrash of Yaʿaḳov ben Mosheh Molin (Maharil) (יעקב בן משה מולין (מהרי׳׳ל); folio 13r: hagaha ascribed to Rabbi Shalom of Austria.
2. folios 13r–35v: הלכות בדיקה והן ל׳׳ו שערים by Elʿazar ben Yehudah of Worms; with hagahot of the bet midrash of Yaʿaḳov ben Mosheh Molin and, likely, also of Avraham Ḳloizner; mentioned are, quite often הרי׳׳ב and (הרי׳׳ט (טוביה בן אליהו הכהן מוינה (Ṭoviyah ben Elyahu ha-Kohen of Vienna), as well as יצחק הלבן (Yitsḥaḳ ha-Lavan) (folio 26v), חיבור רבי׳ גרשון מאור הגולה בבדיקות שלו (Gershom Meʾor ha-golah) (folio 32v), et cetera.
3. folio 36: יח טריפו׳ בקצור לשון מבוארי׳ כאן; completion phrase below end of text: סליקו הלכות טריפות ... מתחיל ומסיים ברכ׳ מהר׳׳ם.
4. folios 36v–53r: ברכות מהר׳׳ם (Meʾir ben Barukh of Rothenburg).
5. folios 53r–63v: הלכות נדה שחיבר מהר"ר יצחק מדורא זצ׳׳ל with hagahot.
6. folios 63v–127v: איסור והיתר by Yitsḥaḳ of Duren (=שערי דורא); "containing more than does the printed text" according to Roth, "Catalogue", no. 320; with hagahot.
7. folio 127v: Colophon.
Script is identified as "Franco-German" by Roth, "Catalogue", no. 320, and as Ashkenazic-Italian by National Library of Israel (NLI), Online Catalogue, system-no. 990001858960205171.
State of text: Worn but relatively well preserved; underwent conservation work.
Insertion: 1 leaf with research notes in Roth's hand.
Bibliographical note:
Roth, "Catalogue", in Alexander Marx: Jubilee Volume, vol. 1 (New York, 1950), no. 320.
National Library of Israel (NLI), Online Catalogue, system-no. 990001858960205171 (with 6 depending records). The NLI’s description is based on the microfilm of MS Roth 320 made on behalf of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts of the NLI during the 1960s. The microfilm can now be downloaded in a digitised form from the NLI-webpage.
Frojmovič, Hebraica (Leeds, 1997), no. 2.
Davis, Handlist 164 (Leeds, 2005), no. 320.
Decoration
Decoration 1: Initial words in folios 1r and 53v are decorated with flourished ornamentation drawn very intricately in delicate lines in watered-down ink and pencil (similar decoration of first words in diluted ink are also to be found in manuscripts written by Aryeh ben Eleʿeazar Ḥalfon who is maybe identical with Aryeh Ḥalfon Tsarfati).
Decoration 2: Complex layout (exquisitely written).
Decoration 3: Different script sizes and types for different parts of the text.
Decoration 4. Strict maintenance of left margin.
Decoration 5. Completion formulas.
Physical characteristics
Dimensions of written space: 112mm x 76mm
Foliation: ii (paper; i is paste-down) + 127 (vellum) + iv (paper; iv is paste-down); modern pencil foliation, upper left recto.
Collation: 1–13¹⁰(8–10 are cancelled).
Catchwords: only 1 very small catchword at the very edge of the left side of the tail margin of folio 17v is extant (not a quire catchword); tail margins are 46mm wide; it is not clear whether other catchwords used to be extant but were trimmed off.
Ruling: frame-ruled in hard point; vertical bounding lines drawn from head to tail; generally 26 ruled lines; on many pages, a more complex ruling lays out several distinct text blocks (for commentaries and such) to a page.
Number of lines: 26–39.
Script: Ashkenazic script.
Ms. codex: width 139mm height 185mm
Binding
15th–16th century full leather over wooden boards (Venetian binding?) (195mm x 149mm); underwent conservation work with original spine replaced; complex blind tooled pattern decorates cover of both boards; bronze clasps in the centre of tail, head, and left edge of upper board and the remnants of two corresponding originally red leather ties (each secured with nails) on head and right edge of lower board; sewn over three raised supports; tail leaf edges show traces of inscription in ink with two Hebrew words [שחיטות ???]; probably titling for shelving purposes.
Scribal information
Written by Aryeh Ḥalfon Tsarefati; colophon (127v): חזק אריה חלפן צרפתי עמ׳׳י; the scribe marked his name Aryeh also with a flourish on folio 52v; the description of MS Roth 320 in National Library of Israel (NLI)-Online Catalogue (system-no. 990001858960205171) identifies Aryeh Ḥalfon ha-Tsarefati as Aryeh ben Eliʿezer Ḥalfan (Ḥalfon or Halfoni), a scribe active in the second half of the 15th century, of whom around 10 manuscripts are preserved; a cursory comparison between para-scriptural elements and script style in MS Roth 320 and in some of the mss copied by אריה בן אליעזר חלפן (who according to their catalogue descriptions does not call himself ha-Tsarfati in any of them) could not confirm this supposition conclusively.
Censors
Vincentius Matelica (folio 1r).
Dominico Irosolomi[ta]no (folio 127v).
Laurentius Franguellus, 1576 (folio 127v).
Aless[and]ro Scipione (folio 127v).
Gio[vanni] Dominico Carretto 1618 (folio 127v).
Former owners and annotations
15th-century acquisition and owner’s note by Ḥayim ben Yiśraʾel Natan ish Śontsino, who was possibly the third son (unknown from the printing business?) of the printer Israel Nathan ben Samuel ben Moses Soncino who died in 1492 or 1493. Ḥayim refers to his father as still alive (יצ׳׳ו), and names also the previous owner of the item Yitsḥaḳ de-Bula who held the manuscript as pawn; the note is written in Italian Hebrew script on folio 127v: קניתי ע׳׳י אדו׳ אבי יצ׳׳ו כי פדיתי אותו שהיה משכון ביד ר׳ יצחק דבולא עם קצת ספרי׳ אחרי׳ נא׳ חיים בכמ׳׳ר ישראלנתן איש שונצינו; below the acquisition note is a note about the content of the manuscript in the same hand: שחיטות ובדיקות בשערי׳ עם הגהו׳ מר׳ יצחק מדורא; ברכות הר׳׳ם ז׳׳ל עם הגהות; י׳׳ח טריפות; הלכות נדה עם הגהות דר׳ יצחק מדורא;
איסור והיתיר ושאר טריפות עם הגהות מדורא.
Hebrew notes about item’s content on front paste-down.
Bibliographical notes in pencil in front and back paste-down (most of them pasted over by book plate but they are still visible on microfilm).
Roth’s description of MS Roth 320, cut out from a copy of his printed catalogue, and the bookplate of The Cecil Roth Collection are attached to front paste-down.
Access and usage
Access
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