Sefer ha-Hasidim (Book of the Pietists), Judah ben Samuel he-Hasid, Bologna: Company of Silk Weavers, 1538

149 leaves (8 1/8 x 5 5/8 in.; 207 x 142 mm). Title soiled with a few pen-trials and crossed out inscription, some soiling, light dampstaining and spotting, top margin of last five quires mended without loss. Nineteenth-century three-quarter vellum, gold-stamped title on spine; soiled and rubbed.

Vinograd, Bologna 12; Mehlman 787

149 leaves (8 1/8 x 5 5/8 in.; 207 x 142 mm). Title soiled with a few pen-trials and crossed out inscription, some soiling, light dampstaining and spotting, top margin of last five quires mended without loss. Nineteenth-century three-quarter vellum, gold-stamped title on spine; soiled and rubbed.
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Sefer Hasidim comprises the ethical teachings of the Hasidei Ashkenaz movement that flourished among the Jews of medieval Germany in the 12th and early 13th centuries. Tradition attributes the entire Sefer Hasidim to Judah he-Hasid (the Pious) of Regensburg (d. 1217.) Many of the passages in Sefer Hasidim are homiletic and exegetic in nature, explaining the ethical, and sometimes the philosophical or mystical, meanings of biblical verses or talmudic sayings. Most of the passages, however, discuss only ethics, and do so in direct connection with everyday life. The work sheds particular light on the economic and religious relations between Jews and gentiles, occasionally describing actual incidents, notably during and after the attacks of the crusaders on Jews in Germany and France. Sefer Hasidim is the prime example of pragmatic teachings in Jewish ethical literature. In each passage, the text takes into account a variety of factors including, the interactive psychology of the protagonists as well as the historic and economic conditions. This approach renders Sefer Hasidim as perhaps, the most important historical source for the study of everyday Jewish life in medieval Germany.

Later Jewish ethical works influenced by Sefer Hasidim retained its strict and uncompromising adherence not only to the commandments, but to the entire body of religious ethics. The book instructs the pious man how to resist temptation and avoid any situation which may lead to sin. It teaches how to dress, to speak, to pray, to work, and to sleep; how to choose a wife and to select friends; how to harmonize between the necessities of existence and the requirements of religious life; which city is suitable for a pious person to live in and which is not; the right relationship between teacher and pupil; how to choose a righteous teacher; in what fields one may have commercial contact with gentiles and how to treat them, and numerous other subjects. No other Hebrew work in ethics covers so much ground and devotes such close attention to realistic detail.

This is one of the nine Hebrew books printed in Bologna by the partners of the Company of Silk Weavers between the years 1537-1541. Although he has frequently and mistakenly been referred to as one of the partners in the Company of Silk Weavers, the text of the colophon clearly identifies Abraham ben Moses ha-Kohen as the publisher and not a member of the Company.