Kol-Bo (Halakhic Compendium) [Italy: (Naples?), ca. 1490]

170 leaves (10  3/8  x 7  1/2  in.; 262 x 190 mm).  collation: 1–6⁸,8-21⁸, 22⁶ [23]^{4 of 6} , lacking quire 7, the first leaf of the index (present in facsimile) and a blank. Manuscript Hebrew historical and genealogical notes appear on accompanying free endpaper. Stained. Several pages mounted, a few with tape repairs. Losses to final text leaf and index affecting several words.  Running titles in manuscript  through quire 20. White cloth.

 

first edition

Written in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century, the Kol Bo ("All is Within it") contains 148 sections dealing with blessings, prayer, the synagogue, Sabbath, holidays, marriage, monetary matters, forbidden foods, and mourning; it also includes one of the earliest commentaries on the text of the Passover Haggadah. The identity of the author remains unknown, though scholars have suggested a relationship between this work and the Orhot Hayyim of Aaron ben Jacob ha–Kohen of Lunel. Identical language in the two works caused several important rabbinical scholars such as Joseph Caro and Hayyim Joseph David Azulai to suggest that Kol Bo is an abridgement of that work. The bibliographer Isaac Benjacob went so far as to suggest that the Kol-Bo was an earlier working of the Orhot Hayyim. The dating of this first printed edition of  Kol Bo has long intrigued scholars and A. K. Offenberg's study of the watermarks in several copies suggests a date of 1491–92. However, handwritten Hebrew historical and genealogical notes which appear on an accompanying free endpaper in this copy and which bear the date 1490, suggest the possibility of the Kol Bo having been printed in that year, earlier than previously believed.

Literature: Offenberg 81; Goff Heb-67; Steinschneider 3589; Thes A94; Iakerson 78; BMC XIII 78 (C.50.c.10). See A. K. Offenberg, A Choice of Corals (Nieuwkoop, 1992), ch. III: "The Dating of the Kol Bo."