Shulchan Aruch [Code of Jewish Law]. Four parts in one volume.

KARO, JOSEPH

Giorgio di Cavalli

Venice

1567

Second edtion. Title letters within decorative woodcut vignettes, opening word of each section within decorative woodcut border-piece incorporating printers’ device (cf. Yaari no. 33). Printers’ device on title (Yaari no. 32). With the signature and marginal annotations of R. Samuel Schotten Ha’kohen (the MaHaRSHaSHa”CH), author of Kos Yeshuoth (Frankfurt am Main, 1711)

Vinograd, Venice 553; Adams J-339

A digest of the expansive Beith Yoseph, the Shulchan Aruch (“Prepared Table”) so named by Karo to indicate that he had prepared the material in a manner ready to be consumed immediately. It became the Rabbinic Code par excellence. Two editions were issued simultaneously; one at the House of Cavalli and the other at that of Giovanni Griffio. For details regarding the first printings of the Shulchan Aruch, see: R. Margoliot, in Sinai, Vol. 37 (1955) pp. 25-35 and R. Y. Nissim in Sinai Sepher Yovel (1958) pp. 29-39. Amram speculates that; “[t]he printers’ mark of Cavalli, the elephant bearing a castle, and its significant motto may be interpreted to indicate how the times were changed. The elephant marches “tarde sed tuto,” slowly but surely, like the march of Enlightenment that led man out of the darkness of the Middle Ages.” See: D. Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy (1963) p. 349.