Sepher Mitzvath Gadol (SM”G) [“The Great Book of Precepts”]

MOSES BEN JACOB OF COUCY

Gershom ben Moses Soncino

Soncino

1488

Woodcut initials and incipit panels on on ff. 2r, 8v, 103v, and 107r. Lengthy, comprehensive marginal notes in an Italian hand on ff. 8a-b, 9a-b, 14a-b, shorter scattered marginalia and corrections in other Ashkenazic hands. Signatures of four censors on final leaf.

Vinograd, Soncino 37; Goff 85; Thesaurus A-48; Goldstein 58; Offenberg 95; Steinschneider p.1797 no.6453.2; Wineman Cat. 28

Coplete Copy of the First Book Printed by Gershom Soncino. Nephew of Joshua Soncino, Gershom printed nearly 100 books (in several languages) during his long career. The second incunable edition of this extensive and important work, the first undated edition was printed in Rome, c.1469-72 (see Lot 5). 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 contingents, the French and those of French origin in Northern Italy were not satisfied until they found their own French authority - R. Moses of Coucy. Joshua Boaz, in his Ein Mishpat - a mainstay of all standard Talmud editions - references the Halachic decisions of this ‘trio’ - Maimonides, Semag and the Tur, for all Talmudic discussions, especially where a difference of opinion arises in the Talmud. For more details and information concerning the author, purpose, contents, and order of this work, see E. E. Urbach, Baalei Ha-Tosfot, pp. 384-95.