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

KARO, JOSEPH.

Giorgio di Cavalli

Venice

1567

Second edition. 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.

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 has become the Rabbinic Code par excellence. Two editions were issued simultaneously; the present 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. “The printers’ mark of Cavalli, an elephant bearing a castle, and its significant motto, may be interpreted to indicate how the times were changing. 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.