47 58 KARO, YOSEPH. Shulchan Aruch [“Prepared Table”: Code of Jewish Law]. FIRST EDITION. All four parts in four volumes. Title page bearing three-crowned printers device of Bragadin (Yaari, Hebrew Printers’ Marks, no.18). Modern calf. 4to. * Volume I, Orach Chaim: ff. 123 (of 136), (10). Provided in facsimile: ff. 1-8, 77-81. Margins laid to size, some staining. * Volume II, Yoreh De’ah: ff. 124 (of 131), (1). Provided in facsimile: ff. 123-4, 128-32 and partial facsimile ff. 125-6. Repaired worming to f. 127. * Volume II, Even Ha’ezer: ff. 79. Complete. Browned, corners rounded, paper repairs with loss of few letters on opening leaves, title laid down with printer’s mark provided in facsimile, marginalia. * Volume IV, Choshen Mishpat: ff. 165. Final errata leaf provided in facsimile. Marginalia, final few leaves somewhat worn. [Vinograd, Venice 509; Mehlman, 777; Adams J-338] Venice, Bragadin,1565. $40,000 - $60,000 ❧ THE EXCEPTIONALLY RARE FIRST EDITION OF THE SHULCHAN ARUCH. “The social impact of the Shulhan Arukh was unprecedented. Its reception by Jews everywhere…meant that for all ordinary purposes one and the same manual was the de facto standard of reference. Even more, the Shulhan Arukh came to represent the Summa of Jewish life; it was the valid formulation of practical Judaism that henceforth dominated Israel…Few literary documents - apart from the Bible, the Talmud, and perhaps the Prayer Book - have acquired such immense practical and symbolic social value in Jewish history.” R.J. Zwi Werblowsky, Joseph Karo: Lawyer and Mystic (1980) pp. 7-8.