Sepher Agur.

LANDAU, JACOB

Azriel b. Joseph Aschkenazi Gunzenhauser

(Naples

1491)

FIRST EDITION. Few marginal notes in an early hand (see f. 50 and f. 142).

Vinograd, Naples 15; Goff Heb-68; Offenberg 82; Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. p. 1225, no. 5564,1; Thes. A67; Wineman Cat. 40.

FIRST EDITION OF THIS IMPORTANT SOURCE OF ASCHKENAZIC HALACHA. The work contains fourteen hundred and thirty nine sections, following the order of the Tur. It deals largely with ritual, the laws of Sabbath and the Festivals. The author’s purpose was to add to the decisions of the later German scholars, such as Jacob Moelin (Mahari”l) and Israel Isserlein, which were omitted by Jacob ben Asher in his Tur. As it was the final Halachic Code composed by a German rabbinic scholar before the advent of R. Joseph Karo, the Agur was heavily used by the latter in his Beth Joseph and Shulchan Aruch, cementing the legacy of the aforementioned Aschkenazic Halachists. The Agur is the first book to contain rabbinic haskamoth (approbations). The Agur is also the second Hebrew book printed in the lifetime of its author.