Bidspirit auction | Sefer HaMitzvot by the Rambam

Sefer HaMitzvot by the Rambam – First Edition – Constantinople, Ca. 1510-1525 – Schocken Copy - Sefer HaMitzvot by the Rambam, translated from Judeo-Arabic to Hebrew by R. Moshe ibn Tibbon. [Constantinople: printer not indicated, ca. 1510-1525]. First edition. Printed without a title page. The translator's introduction on the first leaf: ”Says Moshe son of Shmuel son of Yehudah ibn Tibbon of Granada: This important treatise was authored by the distinguished rabbi, the great luminary who enlightened the eyes of the diaspora, our teacher and master Moshe servant of G-d, son of the distinguished R. Maimon of blessed memory…”. Initial letter Alef on p. [1a] set in fine, woodcut decorative panel. This is the first edition of the Rambam's Sefer HaMitzvot, among the most important medieval enumerations of the Mitzvot. The book, written originally in Judeo-Arabic, was supposed to serve as an introduction to Mishneh Torah. It includes a detailed list of the 613 commandments, the traditional number in the Written Torah. Before listing them, the Rambam prefaces an introduction composed of fourteen principles serving as the basis for his method of counting the Mitzvot. The Rambam later expressed dissatisfaction for not having composed the work in Hebrew: ”I very much regret having composed it in the Arabic language, because everyone needs to read it, and I am now waiting to translate it to the holy tongue…” (Letters of the Rambam, Y. Sheilat edition, Jerusalem, 1995, p. 223). R. Moshe ibn Tibbon's translation of the book was the most widely diffused Hebrew translation of the book for many years. Scholar R. Chaim Heller, in the introduction to his edition of the Rambam's Sefer HaMitzvot (Piotrków, 1914) writes that in subsequent editions of the book the printers made many changes, intending to fix mistakes, while in fact creating many errors in the original text of Tibbon's translation. Pencil inscriptions on endpaper, handwritten by Salman Schocken. On leaves [44] and [67], stamps of the ”Schocken library, Jerusalem”. Signature on first leaf of ”Menachem Manish Mordechai [Teomim]” – apparently the signature of R. Menachem Manish Mordechai Teomim, grandson of R. Elyakim Getzel Margaliot, son-in-law of R. Baruch Frankel-Teomim Rabbi of Lipník, the Baruch Taam, and brother-in-law of the Divrei Chaim of Sanz. R. Menachem Manish Mordechai mediated and contributed to a correspondence between the Baruch Taam and the Beit Efraim, published as Agudat Ezov (Brooklyn, 2002), which includes a letter he wrote to his grandfather R. Elyakim Getzel Margaliot, brother of the Beit Efraim. Further ownership inscriptions on first leaf of ”Yaakov [---?]”; ”Moshe Binyamin[?]”. Several glosses in early Italian script. On last leaf, signature of censor(?): ”Augustinus”. [68] leaves (handwritten numeration added to bottom margins of leaves). 21 cm. Most leaves in good-fair condition. Stains. Tears and open tears, including many tears to first leaf and margins of other leaves, not affecting text, repaired with paper filling. Tear across leaf [24], affecting text, without loss (repaired). Ownership stamps. New leather binding. Housed in leatherbound cardboard slipcase. Enclosed is the original cardboard binding of the book, before it was rebound. A. Yaari, Hebrew Printing at Constantinople, no. 80. Provenance: 1. Schocken collection, Jerusalem. 2. Sotheby's, London, December 1993, Lot 123. 3. Kestenbaum, New York, June 2003, Lot 32.