Arbah Turim [The Four Orders of the Jewish Code of Law]

The Property of the Late David Frankel, Bookseller and Bibliographer, Husiatyn-Vienna-New York (1876-1948). Divided into four sections (“Turim,” or rows): i. Orach Chaim; on blessings, prayers, the Sabbath, festivals etc. ii. Yoreh De’ah; on ritual law, Shechitah, usery, idolatry and mourning. iii. Even ha’Ezer; on laws affecting women. iv. Choshen Mishpat; on civil law and personal relations. “The legal compendia of Jacob b. Asher and Maimonides were the most popular post-talmudic and non-liturgical Hebrew books of the 15th century.” National Library of Canada Catalogue, The Jacob M. Lowy Collection (1981) no.11. According to I. Sonne the Soncino Tur “grabbed first place... prized among Rabbinic scholars at the close of the 15th century." See Tiyulim Be-historia Ubibliographia in: Sepher Hayovel ... Alexander Marx (1950) p.222. This edition of the Arbah Turim is the only work in which Solomon Soncino, brother of the better known Gershom, is recorded as printer. Amram suggests, “It seems that although Joshua Solomon’s name appears in most of the books of the first five years of the press, the others were entitled to an equal share of the credit of their production and it may be that the younger men after serving their apprenticeship were rewarded by permission to attach their names to an occasional publication. Thus, while Gershom apears as the printer of the Book of Moses of Coucy (issued in 1488), his brother Solomon, in 1490 appears as the printer of a new editon of that other great law book, the Turim of Jacob ben Asher.” See Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy p.78 For another copy sold at auction see Kestenbaum & Company, March 28th, 2000 Lot 257; and Sotheby’s, Highly Important Hebrew Printed Books and Manuscripts, New York, June 26th, 1984 Lot 13