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

AUCTION 49 | Wednesday, October 27th, 2010 at 1:00

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

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Lot 244

MOSES OF COUCY

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

Title within architectural arch. First word of Introduction (also of text on ff. 92r. and 251r.) within magnificent woodcut design. Letters of opening word (on f.7v.) within white-on-black decorative vignette. Numerous scholarly marginalia in an old hand (see e.g. ff.20r., 41r., 47v.-48r., 55r., 141v.-142v., 151v.-153v., 224r.). On final page, Hebrew inscription of former owner "David bar Chaim Katz" ff. 250, (2), 251-316. Opening several leaves remargined with occasional loss of text. f.91 provided from another copy, f. 243 torn, small upper portion of final leaf with loss provided in manuscript, minor stains. Modern half-morocco boards. Folio Vinograd, Venice 318; Habermann, Bomberg 194; Adams M-1872

Venice: Daniel Bomberg 1547

Est: $1,000 - $1,500

Following Maimonides’ Code, the Sepher Mitzvoth Gadol would be the next significant work of this genre. Indeed, in R. Joshua Boaz Baruch’s Ein Mishpat, - which has appeared in virtually every edition of the Talmud since its first appearance in Giustanini’s Venetian edition of 1546, - passages in the Talmud are carefully cross-referenced to both Maimonides’ Code and to the Sepher Mitzvoth Gadol. Composed by Rabbi Moses of Coucy, France, Sepher Mitzvoth Gadol is a crystallization of the Aschkenazic tradition of Halacha. See M. J. Heller, Printing the Talmud (1992) pp. 185-90