Auction 66 · Lot 117

Sepher Halachoth Rav Alfas [Rabbinic code]. Vol. III [Nezikin] only (of 3).

Estimate: $4,000–$6,000
Hammer price: $4,800

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

author

ALFASI, ISAAC BEN JACOB (RI”F).

printer

Daniel Bomberg

Place

Venice

Publication

1522

Description

With Mordechai and commentaries. Title pages within woodcut architectural borders, opening words within white-on-black decorative woodcut vignettes. EXTENSIVE SCHOLARLY MARGINALIA by R. Samuel Sha’ar Aryeh of Mantua.

references

Vinograd, Venice 34; Haberman, Bomberg 69; St. 5310, 2 (ed. quoque rara).

summary

The RI”F is the most significant Halachic compendium prior to the Yad HaChazakah of Maimonides and remains an important and widely admired Code. R. Joseph Karo regarded Alfasi’s scholarship with the utmost respect and determined the laws in his Shulchan Aruch upon his authority. The signature of the author of most of these extensive marginal notes, R. Samuel Sha’ar Aryeh bar Elisha is found on f. 297a. The Sha’ar Aryeh (Portaleone) family produced a number of great rabbinical scholars, including the renowned physician and scholar, Abraham Portaleone, author of Shiltei HaGiborim (Mantua, 1612).

ff. 392. (Shaarei Shavuoth section wanting - some copies contain final section of Shaarei Shavuoth ff. 9,(1) which was appended to copies of this edition after the colophon on f. 392). Title page laid down, with signatures including Shimshon ben HaGaon (Azriel Dayana?), previous owner’s marks, words censored and rewritten (f. 361b), some staining, paper repairs, wormed in places. Modern calf. Large folio.

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