Auction 49 · Lot 244

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

Estimate: $1,000–$1,500
Hammer price: Not recorded

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

author

MOSES OF COUCY

printer

Daniel Bomberg

Place

Venice

Publication

1547

Description

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"

references

Vinograd, Venice 318; Habermann, Bomberg 194; Adams M-1872

summary

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

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

Enquire about this lot