Sepher Mitzvoth Gadol (Sma”g) [“The Great Book of Commandments”: Enumeration of the 613 precepts]

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 208

MOSES OF COUCY

Sepher Mitzvoth Gadol (Sma”g) [“The Great Book of Commandments”: Enumeration of the 613 precepts]

Woodcut initials and incipit panels. Signatures of four censors on final page and censored in places. ff. 279. Complete (except for opening blank). Printed without a title page. Ex-library. Previous owners' marks, small portion of final leaf repaired affecting a few words, minor marginal repair on f. 101, f. 278, few marginal wormholes, slight staining in places. Modern half calf. Folio Vinograd, Soncino 37; Goff 85; Thesaurus A-48; Goldstein 58; Offenberg 95; Steinschneider p.1797 no.6453.2; Wineman Cat. 28

Soncino: Gershom ben Moses Soncino, 19th December, 1488

Est: $40,000 - $60,000

PRICE REALIZED $72,500

Complete Copy of the First Book Printed by Gershom Soncino. According to I. Sonne (see Tiyulim...in: A. Marx Jubilee Volume (1950) pp. 209-235, the reason why the ‘trio’ - the Sema"g, together with the Tur and Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, were the most popular Halachic works published during the incunable period - and indeed the first eighty years of Hebrew printing, was because they provided authoritative and comprehesive information for the various classes of the major streams of Spanish, French, German and Italian Jews. Although the Tur and the Ramba”m provided for the needs of the Sephardic and German Jews, the French and those of French origin in Northern Italy were not satisfied until they found their own French authority - R. Moses of Coucy. For detail concerning the author and his intentions regarding this work, see E. E. Urbach, Baalei Ha-Tosfot, pp. 384-95