Bnei Chayyei – novellae on Arba Turim, by the gaon Rabbi Chaim Algazi, rabbi of Rhodes. First edition. Printed in the village of Ortaköy, 1712.
With the gaon Rabbi Shlomo Avraham Rechtze’s owners’ stamps and signatures, as well as another signature, ‘The youth Yosef Dwek S”T.’
The book was brought to print by the author’s disciple, Rabbi Meir Danon. In his foreword to the book, he writes that the book’s title was already determined by the author, as his own memorial after his only son had passed away childless. Glosses by the gaon Rabbi Chaim Elfandri were added in the body of the book, marked by a clenched hand with an open finger – in the Chid”a’s golden tongue: “And each gloss in each knuckle/chapter of the hand/14 increased wisdom” [“וכל הגה”ה בפרק כל הי”ד המרבה”].
This is the third book printed by the prominent Constantinople printer, Yonah ben Ya’akov HaAshkenazi of Zalozitz, in the Lvov region. That year, a fire broke out in Constantinople, and the printer was forced to flee with his printshop to the nearby village of Ortaköy.
[2], 34 [should be: 31], 31-75, [2], 76-191; 16, 19 leaves. Approximately 29 cm. High-quality paper.
Fine condition. Aging stains. Detached front binding. Blemished spine. With these exceptions, the body of the book is in fine-very fine condition.