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

MOSES OF COUCY

Gershom ben Moses Soncino

Soncino

1488

Second edition. Woodcut initials and incipit panels. A wide-margined copy.

Vinograd, Soncino 37; Goff Heb-85; Thes. A-48; Goldstein 58; Offenberg 95; Steinschneider p. 1797 no. 6453.2.

The first book printed by Gershom Soncino. Second incunable edition of this extensive work, the first edition of which was issued in Rome, c.1469-72. Following Maimonides’ Code, the Sepher Mitzvoth Gadol is the most significant work of this Halachic genre. Indeed, in R. Joshua Boaz Baruch’s Ein Mishpat, passages in the Talmud are carefully cross-referenced to both Maimonides’ Code and to the Sepher Mitzvoth Gadol. A major stylistic difference between the two works is that rabbinic precepts are included in the Sma’g, while the Mishneh Torah only enumerates Biblical commandments. R. Moses of Coucy was among the elite strata of French Tosafist. A student of R. Judah of Paris and brother-in-law of R. Samson of Sens, it is of little surprise that R. Moses was one of the four rabbis who argued in defense of the Talmud in the famed Disputation in Paris, 1240. See M. J. Heller, Printing the Talmud (1992) pp. 185-90. See Treasures of the Valmadonna Trust Library - Otzroth Ya’akov, Incunables no. 22.