Manuscript, Commentary on the Ketubah – Autograph by Rabbi Avraham son of Rabbi Shabbetai Del Vecchio – Italy, 1610s-1630s

Format:

Book

Physical Description:

[24] leaves (including three blank leaves) ; 19 cm.

Place of Publication:

[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified] ; $c [1610-1630?]

Notes:

Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans. Good condition. Stains. Original cardboard binding, with minor defects.

Manuscript, commentary on the ketubah, by R. Avraham son of R. Shabbetai Del Vecchio – author's autograph. [Italy, ca. 1610s-1630s]. Halachic work with a sentence-by-sentence commentary on the ketubah text, with instructions, laws, customs and more. Main text in scribal writing, with many additions, deletions and corrections in the handwriting of the author in the margins and between the lines. At beginning and end of manuscript, approx. two pages in author's handwriting. Apart from the present autograph, another extant manuscript – Leeds University (England) Ms. 302 – is entirely written by the author, with many corrections, and appears to be an earlier version of the present manuscript. This work appears in other Italian manuscripts, copied by scribes. This work was published recently by R. Yitzchak Hershkowitz (Perush HaKetubah, Machon Harerei Kedem, Brooklyn 2003), but he was unaware of the present autograph and the other autograph (his edition is based on two copyings: Ginzburg-Moscow Mss. 434 and 278).

R. Avraham son of R. Shabbetai Del Vecchio (MehaZekenim; d. 1654), disciple of R. Moshe Provençal. Served as rabbi in Sassuolo, where he began to author the present commentary on the ketubah. Later, ca. 1633, he relocated to officiate in Mantua, where he is a signatory on halachic decisions, enactments and bans alongside his contemporary rabbis of Mantua (see: Simonsohn, History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua [Hebrew], p. 515, and index). Most of his works remain in manuscript: Likutei Orot (novellae and encyclopedic work, mentioned by the Chida in Shem HaGedolim, Maarechet Sefarim, Lamed); Zera Avraham – index to Ein Yaakov; a work on the principle of Migo; a work on annulment of vows; a commentary on the 13 Attributes of Mercy; a commentary on the Berurim document; explanations of unfamiliar words in the Zohar; and more.The ketubah text names his city, Sassuolo, and the date of writing is 1615; however, the author appears to have continued to put finishing touches to his work even after this year, and perhaps even after his move from Sassuolo to Mantua.