JACOB BEN ASHER
Arba’ah Turim.

Arba’ah Turim.
Four parts bound in one. Title page without ornamentation. On f.7 ornate woodcut border by Hans Holbein the Younger depicting the Creation, architectural pillars flanked by Kings David and Solomon clutching scrolls inscribed “The Path of Life (Orach Chaim) Journeys Upwards for the Wise” (Proverbs 15:24). Poem at end by Elijah Levita. Previously
the Salman Schocken copy (with his stamps). 17th-century family records on final two pages. ff. 84; 70; 2, 44; 112, (2). Trimmed, lightly stained in places, few neat marginal repairs. Modern blind-tooled calf. Folio. Vinograd, Augsburg 11; Mehlman 728; St. Cat. Bodl. 5500:7 (ed. rara).

Chaim ba’r David, et al., Augsburg: 1540.


Provenance: S. Schocken - Sotheby’s, Judaica. 4th December, 2014; Lot 50.
     A fundamental Rabbinic treatise embracing all the laws and customs incumbent both on an individual and the community as a whole. Its overriding authority has been recognized and accepted by Jewish scholars for generations.
     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 halacha… you must repair the problems. …We obtained a Tur that was checked and corrected by our teacher, HaGaon R. Abraham of Prague the “Light of our Generation” and compared every page two or three times.”
     
Jacob ben Asher’s Tur. A Rare and Important German Edition.