Arba'ah Turim, Jacob ben Asher, Augsburg: Hayyim ben David [Shahor], Joseph ben Yakar, Isaac ben Hayyim: 1540

315 leaves (11 x 7 1/4 in.; 280 x 184 mm). FOLIATION: [1], 2-6 [1], 8-84, 1-70, 1-2, 1-44, 1- 112 [2+1]= 315 leaves; modern foliation in pencil. Some browning, staining, and marginal repairs, mostly in Orah Hayyim, few elsewhere; ff.72, 77, tipped in from another copy. Library stamp on f.1r, 312 r; owners' birth and death records on ff. 314v-315r. Marbled endpapers; edges tinted red. Modern blind-tooled brown morocco, spine with gilt stamped titles. A very fine copy.

Ex Schocken Library; early owners' notations of births and deaths between 1563-1716 on rear free endpapers

Vinograd, Augsburg 11; Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. 5500:7 (ed. rara); Mehlman 728.

The Arba'ah Turim, often referred to simply as the Tur, is a halakhic compendium written by Jacob ben Asher (c. 1270-1340). The arrangement of the book, its simple style, and its wealth of content, made it a basic work in Hebrew law, where it opened a new era in the realm of halakhic codification. Its overriding authority has been recognized and accepted by Jewish scholars for generations. 

This edition is noteworthy for the source references and explanations of difficult words by Abraham ben Avigdor (d. 1542), known as Abraham of Prague, one of the great rabbis of his generation, and author of numerous commentaries, glosses, and responsa. The publisher praises this edition on the title-page as follows: “All previous editions of the Turim have faults and are crippled… especially the last two parts… I called upon my son-in-law Yoseph bar Yakar and told him… you are a scholar, dig into the depths of the halakha… you must repair the problems. …We obtained a Tur that was checked and corrected by our teacher, ha-Gaon Rabbi Abraham of Prague, the 'Light of our Generation,' and compared every page two or three times.”

The book opens with introductions by the printer and the author followed by a table of contents (ff.1r-6v). The text begins on f.7 within an ornate woodcut border traditionally ascribed to Hans Holbein the younger. The present copy complete with the rare two leaf index at end which Steinschneider notes is frequently missing.

The present, very fine copy was formerly in the collection of Salman Schocken.