JACOB BEN ASHER
(Ba’al HaTurim). Tur - Choshen Mishpat.

(Ba’al HaTurim). Tur - Choshen Mishpat.
Hebrew Manuscript on paper, written in an Aschkenazi semi-cursive hand in brown ink. With headings and marginalia containing a synopsis of the chapter in red ink. ca. 435 leaves (incomplete, see below). Stained and worn in places, final leaves frayed affecting some text. Unbound, loose. Thick 4to.

(Aschkenaz): Early 15th century.

An important, early manuscript of a Halachic Code whose over-riding authority has been accepted - indeed prized - by Rabbinic scholars for generations.
     This manuscript certainly far predates the first printed edition (Piove di Sacco, 1475). It contains a number of variances and alternate readings when compared to the received text. For example, in chapter 70 the printed edition reads “Rashi Kathav” (Rashi writes) while the manuscript hear reads “Rashi Pasak” (Rashi ruled).
Clearly this manuscript deserves to be thoroughly studied to learn further novellae in relation to the standard, received text.
     The text here commences in the middle of chapter 46 (laws of documents) and continues until chap. 418 (torts). The original scribe of this manuscript numbered each chapter and includes a brief synopsis in red ink. These synopses do not appear in the printed editions. However the chapter numbers indicated by the scribe in the manuscript do not match the chapter numbers in the printed edition. A later scribe has crossed out many of the original numbers written in red ink and changed these chapter numbers in brown ink to conform to the standard chapter numbers in the printed editions.
     On the importance of the Tur see I. Sonne, Tiyulim BeHistoria U’Bibliographia in: Sepher HaYovel Alexander Marx (1950) p. 222.