44 55 JACOB BEN ASHER. Arba’ah Turim [The Four Orders of the Jewish Code of Law]. Second incunable edition. Four parts bound here in one volume. EXTENSIVE MARGINALIA THROUGHOUT in several early hands. ff. 256 (of 350). * Part I Orach Chaim: 20 (of 94) lacking signatures 1-7:8, 8:3-8, 9:8, 10:1 and 4, 11:7-8 and 12:8. * Part II Yoreh Deah: ff. 72 (of 80) lacking signature 1:8. * Part III Even Ha’ezer: ff. 50 (of 50) complete. * Part IV Choshen Mishpat: ff. 114 (of 126) lacking signatures 15:1 and 4-8, and 16:1-6. Worn in places, some marginal repairs with occasional loss, final ten leaves supplied in facsimile. Later calf, recased. Folio. [Vinograd, Soncino 38; Offenberg 62; Goff Heb-48; Thesaurus A-56.] Soncino, Solomon ben Moses Soncino, c. 1490. $40,000 - $50,000 ❧ In 1303, Jacob ben Asher, along with his father (and teacher) Asher ben Jehiel (the Rosh), departed from Germany and resettled in Toledo, Spain. The Arba’ah Turim (also called the Tur) served as an important bridge between the two medieval centers of European Jewry and helped to inform the Sephardi Jews of the Iberian Peninsula of the opinions of the Aschkenazi rabbis of France and Germany. The superiority of the work soon led to its dissemination throughout the Diaspora. Its authority was recognized and accepted by all Jewish scholars. When R. Joseph Karo wrote his Beith Yosef, he based it on the Arba’ah Turim. This in turn was the basis for the Shulchan Aruch which ultimately took its place as the unchallenged halachic code par excellence. This copy with extensive marginal notes mostly in an early 16th century Ashkenazic hand. The writer obviously had access to other manuscripts. (Further details available upon request).