(Attributed to). Halachoth Gedoloth [Gaonic Rabbinic Code]

AUCTION 44 | Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Hebrew Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters, Graphic & Ceremonial Art

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Lot 172

KAYARA, SHIMON

(Attributed to). Halachoth Gedoloth [Gaonic Rabbinic Code]

FIRST EDITION. Title within wreathed ornamental arch ff. (4), 144 (f.137 bound out of sequence between ff. 143-4). Final leaf with repaired clean tear, also wanting lower portion without affecting text, few light stains, stamp removed from title. Contemporary mottled calf gilt, spine in compartments and titled in Hebrew, rubbed. Sm. folio Vinograd, Venice 333; Haberman, Adelkind 51; Adams S-1157

Venice: Cornelio Adelkind for Marco Antonio Giustiniani 1548

Est: $700 - $900

PRICE REALIZED $825

The authorship and date of the Halachoth Gedoloth have been the subject of much study and has given rise to conflicting views. Generally speaking, medieval Aschkenazic authorities tended to the view that the author of the work was R. Yehudai Gaon, while their Sephardic counterparts belived the author was R. Shimon Kayara. Modern scholarship inveighs with the latter view. In the introduction, there is an enumeration of the negative and positive commandments. Whereas Maimonides' Sepher HaMitzvoth veered away from such a reckoning, Nachmanides in his glosses to the work of Maimonides, upheld the Halachoth Gedoloth viewpoint. See EJ, VII, cols.1167-70 (illustrated)