Torat ha-Adam (Law of Mankind), Nahmanides, Constantinople: 1518

Vinograd, Const. 117; Mehlman 765; Yaari, Const. 64; Hacker 64

Nahmanides (1194–1270), also known as Ramban—an acronym of Rabbi Moses ben Nahman—was a Spanish rabbi and scholar, renowned philosopher, kabbalist, biblical exegete, poet, and physician as well as one of the leading authors of talmudic literature in the Middle Ages. Following the Barcelona disputation in 1263, Nahmanides left Spain and emigrated to the Land of Israel where he died in 1270.

Torat ha-Adam is a comprehensive and unique monograph on the laws concerning death, illness and dying. This groundbreaking work of Nahmanides served as a foundation for subsequent works on a broad range of topics including not only illness, death and mourning but also the messianic era, the afterlife and resurrection. In thirty chapters, Nahmanides deals with every aspect of the end of life beginning from the onset of serious illness and the obligation to visit the sick and dying. This is followed by a comprehensive guide to the laws of mourning.  Great importance was attached to the work by the leading codifiers; Jacob ben Asher incorporated it, in its actual order and form and with corresponding sections, in his Tur, as did Joseph Caro later in the Shulhan Arukh. Of special interest on its own account is Sha'ar ha-Gemul, the 30th chapter of the work which incorporates kabbalistic concepts within an extended eschatological discussion.  Sha'ar ha-Gemul was published separately in Naples in 1490 (see lot 56), and has been frequently reprinted.