ר׳ יוסף בן שלמה קולון טרבוט

ר׳ יוסף בן שלמה קולון טרבוט, universally known as מהרי״ק, was the foremost Italian halakhic authority of his generation. Born around 1420 at Chambéry in Savoy into a learned family, he studied with his father ר׳ שלמה and with ר׳ מרדכי נתן before moving through northern Italy. By 1469 he served at Piove di Sacco, and his later rabbinic career included Mestre, Bologna and Mantua. His responsa address communal taxation, marriage, commerce, rabbinic jurisdiction and the authority of custom, and were sought across Italy and beyond. In Mantua a major conflict with ר׳ יהודה מסר ליאון led the authorities to expel both scholarly camps in the mid-1470s. מהרי״ק subsequently settled in Pavia, where he headed a yeshiva and died in 1480. His responsa were gathered posthumously and first printed at Venice in 1519; their numbered ‘roots’ became foundational sources for later decisors, especially ר׳ משה איסרליש. This record distinguishes the dates of composition from the later printing and maps only places supported by the biographical tradition.