Lot 173
  • 173

Sefer Mitzvot Gadol (Great Book of Commandments), Moses ben Jacob of Coucy, Venice, Daniel Bomberg: 1522

Estimate
5,000 - 7,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

250 leaves (11½ x 8¼ in.; 292 x 210 mm) including two blanks in final quire; collation: 1-308, 3110=250 leaves. Title mounted, extensive learned marginalia in manuscript on title page and throughout including final two blanks, some of which is shaved; worming and tears in lower outer corner of first few quires with slight loss, dampstains and spotting throughout, some worming in gutter margins some of which has been mended; owner's inscription on f. 2r; censors' inscriptions (Laurentius Franguellus, 1575; Camillo Jagel, 1611) on f. 248r. Eighteenth-century blind-ruled vellum.

Literature

Vinograd, Venice 66; Habermann 73

Condition

250 leaves (11½ x 8¼ in.; 292 x 210 mm) including two blanks in final quire; collation: 1-308, 3110=250 leaves.Title mounted, extensive learned marginalia in manuscript on title page and throughout including final two blanks, some of which is shaved; worming and tears in lower outer corner of first few quires with slight loss, dampstains and spotting throughout, some worming in gutter margins some of which has been mended; owners inscription on f.2r; censors' inscriptions (Laurentius Franguellus, 1575; Camillo Jagel, 1611) on f.248r. Eighteenth-century blind-ruled vellum.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Catalogue Note

The author of this work, Moses ben Jacob of Coucy is among the most distinguished of the Tosafists, the great legal scholars produced by French medieval Jewry during the 12-14th centuries. Moses, who participated in the Paris Talmud debate of 1240, also traveled widely in France and Spain, exhorting the masses to renew their commitment to living according to Jewish law. His most lasting literary achievement however, is the extensive and important work Sefer Mitzvot Gadol, also know by its acronym SeMaG, based in large part on the work of Maimonides. Moses of Coucy, in applying a corrective to the lack of sources in the Mishneh Torah, fills his own work with copious citations from the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds and the various aggadic midrashim, as well as from the works of French and German rishonim. Another practical distinction between the Mishneh Torah and the SeMaG is the varied arrangement of the precepts. In addition to a division between negative and positive commandments, the SeMaG, separates those precepts which are applicable in our time from those which are not.