Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides) Mishneh Torah (Code of Jewish Law) Constantinople: David and Samuel Ibn Nahmias, 1509

Folio, 14 parts bound in 4 volumes, volume 1: Maddah  41 folios (of 44, lacking title and folios 2,3); Ahavah 56 folios; Zemanim 176 folios; Peirush Hilkhot Kiddush ha-Hodesh 19 folios (of 20, lacking folio 20); folios skillfully and neatly mounted, volume 2: Nashim 98 folios: Kedushah 85 folios (of 100, lacking folios 81, 87-100); volume 3: Hafla’ah 17 folios (of 24, lacking folios 1-6, 19, folios 15 and 22 are misbound in Zeraim); Zeraim 44 folios several folios supplied from another copy initial 7 folios mounted; Avodah 40 folios (with duplicates of folios 18 and 23), Korbanot 18 folios; Tohorah 65 folios; volume 4 Nezikim; 53 folios; Kinyan 79 folios,  Mishpatim 89 folios; Shoftim 35 folios (lacking folios 257-259 and final blank). Overall in fine condition with wide margins. In modern leather binding, stamped

Vinograd Constantinople 16, Yaari Constantinople 6
Kasher, Maimonides in Print and Manuscript, Sinai, vol. xviii
Maimon, on the various editions of the Mishneh Torah, Sinai, xxxii

This monumental code of law is divided into 14 books hence the work is also known as the Yad ha-Hazakah, since the numerical value of the Hebrew word yad is 14.

This 1509 publication of the Mishneh Torah, is a major contribution towards the study of Maimonides' text in general, and in particular towards any serious discussion of the classic commentaries on the Mishneh Torah. As this Constantinople edition is the earliest printing of the RaBaD, Magid Mishneh, Migdal Oz and Hagaot Maimoniot, it is an invaluable  source of research for the Maimonides' great halachic work.

The Constantinople edition is in fact the third printed edition of the Mishneh Torah.  The editio princeps is considered by most scholars to have been done in Rome prior to 1480. The second edition, Soncino 1490, has been shown to be almost totally dependent upon the editio princeps. In this respect it appears that the Constantinople 1509 edition used both its predecessors. Its vast importance, however, lies in the fact that it offers the first presentation of the classic commentaries.  Furthermore, with regard to the Hagaot Maimoniot, the present lot offers a different and more complete version than in any subsequent edition, apparently based on a unique manuscript of the text .

Volume 2 contains an exquisite metal-cut border surrounding the opening text of Sefer Kedushah. This border was designed by Alfonso de Cordoba, a converso engraver and initially employed in a Latin prayer book printed in Hijar, 1486. In the following year, it  was used to ornament a Hebrew Pentateuch printed at the same city. The border was then taken to Lisbon and utilized by the Hebrew printer, Toledano, in 1489. Finally, the border was brought to Constantinople where it appeared in several books printed by the Ibn Nahmias brothers between 1505-1509. This Mishneh Torah printed in 1509 is the first Hebrew book to feature pagination.