(The Physician). Kether Torah.

VITAL, DAVID BEN SOLOMON.

Eliezer ben Gershom Soncino

Constantinople

1536

FIRST EDITION . Title within historiated woodcut border, surmounted by coronet. Illustration of hand (relating to calendar) on f. 14v, illustration of cow’s lung (relating to dietary laws) on f. 92v.

Vinograd, Const. 154; Mehlman 705; Yaari, Const. 120.

David Vital, a Spanish exile, settled in Greece, first in Patras, and following the Turko-Venetian war of 1532, in Arta, where he was welcomed as a pre-eminent halachic authority. Kether Torah is a rhymed summary of the 613 commandments in accordance with Maimonides’s enumeration, together with the seven rabbinical commandments. Hence, the numerical value of the title, “Kether” (620). The work is a commentary to Maimonides’s Sefer HaMitzvoth - whereby each precept is discussed - commencing with Maimonides’s formulation and often concluding with a response to Maimonides’s critics. Despite its unusual poetic form, the Kether Torah remains an important halachic source frequently quoted in the rabbinic literature.