Shulchan Aruch [Code of Jewish Law]. Parts I and II (Orach Chaim and Yoreh De’ah) only

KARO, JOSEPH

Juan di Gara for Alvise Bragadini

Venice

1574

THIRD EDITION. Two titles. Rashi script. On both titles three small crowns, printer’s mark of Bragadin (see Yaari, no. 18). Hebrew marginalia in old Italian hand.

Vinograd, Venice 604; Habermann, Di Gara 36

Rare First Section (Orach Chaim) of the 1574 pocket-edition of the Shulchan Aruch. The bibliographer A. M. Habermann himself never encountered the Section Orach Chaim of the 1574 edition, but relied upon the testimony of N. Ben-Menachem, who described an incomplete copy in JTSA, New York. However, there are certain discrepancies between Ben-Menachem’s description and our copy. The wording on the title differs slightly (we do not have the words “nidpas shelishith,”), and perhaps even more significant, Ben-Menachem describes an octavo (8vo), while our copy is an sextodecimo (16mo). Since Ben-Menachem only located an incomplete copy, he was unable to provide the collation. Vinograd did not fare any better than either Habermann or Ben-Menachem, and was forced to leave unrecorded the foliation for Section Orach Chaim. See N. Ben-Menachem, “Ha-Defusim ha-rishonim shel ha-Shulchan Aruch” in: Rabbi Joseph Karo (1969), p.110, no. 7; A.M. Habermann, Giovanni di Gara (1982), pp.14-15, no. 36. The title page of this edition states specifically that it was designed “in a small volume in order that one may carry it in their breast and study it at any time and any place, while resting or traveling.” See EJ, Vol.V, col. 197