Halikhot Olam, Edited by Judah ben Joseph Bulat, Constantinople: 1510

40 leaves (7¾ x 5¼ in.; 191 x 132 mm). Woodcut title border. Ownership notes on title page and last leaf; very lightly stained. Margins renewed, losses to corners, all expertly repaired, only occasionally touching a few letters. Modern blind tooled, gilt stamped black morocco, housed in a red cloth slipcase.

Vinograd, Constantinople 20; Ya'ari, Constantinople 9.

There are two discrete works on talmudic methodology incorporated in this volume. The first of these is Halikhot Olam, by the talmudist Yeshu'ah ben Joseph ha-Levi (15th century). Halikhot Olam is divided into five sections dealing with: composition and arrangement of the Mishnah; talmudic terminology; methodology; the thirteen hermeneutic rules; and the rules for determing halakhah. The second work, Mevo ha-Talmud, is a systematic description of talmudic logic and terminology composed by Samuel ha-Nagid (993-1055), vizier of Granada, scholar, and poet. The two works were conjoined by Judah ben Joseph Bulat (c. 1475-c. 1540) who published them in 1510 in Constantinople, having relocated from his native Navarre, where the final expulsion of Iberian Jewry had taken place in 1498.