Sepher Hilchoth Rav Alfas [Rabbinic code]. With commentary of Rashi, index on quotations from Arbah Turim of Jacob b. Asher and index of Biblical quotations.

AUCTION 12 | Tuesday, March 13th, 2001 at 1:00
Important Hebrew Printed Books and Manuscripts From the Library of the London Beth Din

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Lot 18
ALFASI, ISAAC BEN JACOB (RI”F).

Sepher Hilchoth Rav Alfas [Rabbinic code]. With commentary of Rashi, index on quotations from Arbah Turim of Jacob b. Asher and index of Biblical quotations.

Complete in three volumes. Titles within woodcut architectural arch, incorporating printers’ device (Yaari no. 61) I: ff. 211. II: ff. 160. Marginalia. III: ff. 204. Browned. Volumes I and III in uniform contemporary blind-tooled mahogany mottled-calf, rebacked, lacking clasps and hinges. Vol. II in later blind-tooled chestnut mottled-calf boards, rebacked. 4to Vinograd, Amsterdam 66; Fuks, Amsterdam 210

Amsterdam: Immanuel Benveniste 1643

Est: $2,000 - $2,500
PRICE REALIZED $3,200
A Strikingly, Handsome Set. Isaac Alfasi brought the Geonic period to a close. His fame rests on this great work, whose purpose was to provide a comprehensive compendium for ready reference to facilitate Talmud study. The work remains an important and widely admired code. R. Joseph Caro regarded Alfasi’s scholarship with utmost respect and determined the laws in his Shulchan Aruch upon his authority. Indeed, between the 16th and 19th centuries when the Talmud was banned in Italy, Alfasi’s work was expressly exempted and so it became a principal subject of study among Italian Jews.