Sermons and homilies on the merits of Torah plus a commentary on Kri’ath Shema]. FIRST EDITION. A wide-margined copy. Signature of former owner in an Italian hand on title (Menachem b. Shlomo Chaim), other signatures and stamp on f. 5 (Yitzchak Yoseph Sasson). ff. 76. Index misbound but complete (f. 3 before f. 2), some staining, scattered marginalia, margins of some leaves of Index and lower right hand corner of fi nal leaf of Corrections repaired affecting a few words. Later vellum. Sm. 4to.
[Vinograd, Salonika 63; Mehlman 900]. Salonika, Joseph Ya’avetz: 1563.
Born in Salonika, Moses ben Baruch Almosnino (c. 1515-c. 1580) hailed from a distinguished Jewish family originally from the Spanish town of Aragon. He was renowned for his knowledge of rabbinical matters and for his scholarship in the sciences, particularly natural physics and astronomy. In 1565, he formed a delegation to petition Sultan Selim II for a confirmation of the privileges previously granted to the Salonika Jews in 1537. His efforts procured a favorable decision and in 1568 the Salonika community were granted the status of a self-governing entity, a prerogative it enjoyed for centuries thereafter.
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