Auction 12 · Lot 18

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.

Estimate: $2,000–$2,500
Hammer price: $3,200

Historical auction record. Hammer prices exclude buyer’s premium and taxes.

author

ALFASI, ISAAC BEN JACOB (RI”F).

printer

Immanuel Benveniste

Place

Amsterdam

Publication

1643

Description

Complete in three volumes. Titles within woodcut architectural arch, incorporating printers’ device (Yaari no. 61)

references

Vinograd, Amsterdam 66; Fuks, Amsterdam 210

summary

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.

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

Enquire about this lot