The strength of Ri’s lectures was exactly the fact that he not only conscientiously worked off of a rich tradition, but also infused the material, with the aid of his academy, with his own original dialectics. Both of these elements contributed to his success, as Ri’s independent dialectics were augmented by his masterful integration.
Aryeh Leibowitz, “The Emergence and Development of Tosafot on the Talmud”, Hakirah 15 (Summer 2013), 158, n. 32.