Maharik—Rabbi Joseph Colon רבי יוסף קולון בן שלמה טרבוט
the chief jurist of Italy in his century
His life was passed in quarrels. At Mantua he fell out with Judah Messer Leon so far that each laid a ban on the other and both were driven from the city.
The second case matters more. He threatened a ban against Rav Moshe Capsali, chief rabbi of Constantinople, for supposedly inadmissible leniencies in the law of divorce. When it came out that he had been misled by slander, he charged his son Perez before his death to ask Capsali's pardon. His first responsum holds that a rich plaintiff may not drag a poor defendant into the court that suits him.
His responsa were printed by Daniel Bomberg at Venice in 1519. He was born about 1420 at Chambéry and died in 1480; on the place of death the sources differ—Padua or Pavia.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Rishonim
- She'elot u-Teshuvot Maharik, Venice 1519 — the responsa on which the makers of the Shulchan Aruch leaned
Scholarship
- The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) — the years, the quarrels at Mantua and with Capsali, the printing of the responsa in 1519
Basis: documents and evidence.