Responsa Mahari HaLevi - Signature of the Malbim

Responsa Mahari HaLevi - Signature of the Malbim
Responsa R. Yitzchak HaLevi, brother and teacher of the Taz. Part I. Neuwied (Germany), 1736.
Ownership inscription at the top of the title page handwritten and signed by the Malbim: "I have purchased this book… Meir Leibush Malbim author of Artzot HaChaim VehaShalom, Wreschen". Another signature on leaf [2]: "Natan of Lisa". The stamp of R. Chaim Berlin appears on the last leaf.
R. Meir Leibush Malbim (=Meir Leibush ben Yechiel Michel; 1809-1879), a Biblical commentator and leading rabbi of his generation, erudite in both revealed and hidden realms of the Torah (his teacher for Kabbalah was R. Tzvi Hirsh of Zidichov). In his youth, he authored the book Artzot HaChaim on Shulchan Aruch, which earned the effusive approbation of the Chatam Sofer and gained him renown as an exceptional Torah scholar.
Wherever he served as rabbi or visited (he served as rabbi of Wreschen, Kempen, Bucharest, Kherson, Łęczyca, Mogilev and Königsberg), he was renowned for the uncompromising battle he waged against modernism, Haskalah and Reform, which elicited much harassment. During his tenure in Bucharest, he fought the Maskilim, who retaliated by contriving a blood libel. This resulted in him being imprisoned and sentenced to death, and only thanks to the intervention of Sir Moses Montefiore was his punishment reduced to expulsion from Romania.
The spread of Haskalah drove him to devote his time and skills to composing a systematic commentary to the Bible, with the goal of clarifying the depth of wisdom which lies in the words of the sages, and proving the veracity of Oral law. Thus came to be his famous commentary to the Bible, which was well-received throughout the Jewish world and reprinted in hundreds of editions.
The signature in this book is from the time the Malbim served as rabbi of Wreschen (Września, Poznań County), between 1837-1841, and he notes the first books he printed: Artzot HaChaim on the Shulchan Aruch (printed in Breslau, 1837), and Artzot HaShalom, homilies (printed in Krotoszyn, 1839).
Copy lacking 2 middle leaves and lacking Part II. [2], 24, 27-33 leaves (originally: [2], 33 leaves; 32 leaves). Approx. 31 cm. Fair condition. Stains. Worming, affecting text. Significant wear and marginal tears, affecting text. Paper repairs to margins of most leaves. New cloth binding.
This copy includes leaf [2] with approbations. This leaf is rare and does not appear in some copies.