Auction 39 · Lot 242

RaMBa”M). Sepher HaMitzvoth [“The Book of Precepts”]. Translated from Judeo-Arabic by Moses ibn Tibbon. With Iggereth Teiman [Letter to the Jews of Yemen] and Ma’amar Tehiyath ha-Methim [treatise on Resurrection]

Estimate: $500–$700
Hammer price: $550

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

author

MOSES BEN MAIMON (MAIMONIDES/.

printer

Joseph Atias

Place

Amsterdam

Publication

1660

Description

First Edition combining all three works in one volume

references

Vinograd, Amsterdam 263, 269, 271; Fuks 379

summary

Maimonides composed his Sepher ha-Mitzvoth or Book of Precepts prior to his magnum opus, Mishneh Torah. The author took at face value an aggadic statement at the end of Tractate Makoth to the effect that the Torah handed to Moses on Mount Sinai consisted of 613 commandments. In his introduction, Maimonides lays down the “Shorashim” (Roots) or criteria whereby he determines which laws are to be enumerated in this register of 613 commandments. Not all the laws of the Torah qualify in this respect. Rather than merely listing the commandments one by one, Maimonides provides halachic reasoning and sources in the Talmud and halachic Midrashim

ff. 131. Slight staining. With stamp of Prof. Giuseppe Jare, Chief Rabbi of Ferrara on title and final leaf and his marginal notes and corrections. Plus an insert of three leaves in the same hand at the front containing a scholarly discussion of the various translations of this work citing articles in various scholarly journals by D. Cassel, A. Jellinek and others, with a copy of Ibn Tibbon's introduction from the first Constantinople edition signed "Yoseph Chaim Yare." Half vellum over marbled boards. 4to

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