Shulhan Arukh (The Set Table), Joseph Caro, Venice: Alvise Bragadin, 1565

524 leaves (9 7/8 x 7 in.; 250 x 177 mm). Four parts in one volume, 1-136 [10]; 1-131 [1]; 1-79 [1(blank)]; 1-165 [1]. Woodcut title vignette of three crowns repeated on all four titles; title and first leaves waterstained, some marginal dampstaining and spotting in subsequent leaves, a few lines crossed out. Eighteenth-century calf, blind-tooled in a panel design with floral medallion in central panel; spine and hinges worn, corners torn, ties gone.

Judah ben Jehiel of Fano—1592; Barukh Arizzo; Samuel ben Barukh Aritzo; Solomon Pinto—1754

Vinograd, Venice 509; Mehlman, 777; Adams J-338; Poppers, The Censorship of Hebrew Books (1969), pp.122-23

First Edition of the Most Authoritative Code of Jewish Law 524 leaves (9 7/8 x 7 in.; 250 x 177 mm). Four parts in one volume, 136 [10];131 [1]; 79 [1(blank)]; 165 [1].Woodcut title vignette of three crowns repeated on all four titles; title and first leaves waterstained, some marginal dampstaining and spotting in subsequent leaves, a few lines crossed out. Eighteenth-century calf, blind-tooled in a panel design with floral medallion in central panel; spine and hinges worn, corners torn, ties gone.
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First Edition of the Most Authoritative Code of Jewish Law

The magnum opus of Jewish halakha, the law code known as Shulhan Arukh, compiled in the mid-sixteenth century by Joseph Caro remains the standard legal code of the Jewish religion to this day. The Shulhan Arukh follows the order of Rabbi Jacob ben Asher's Tur and is divided into the same four main sections:

Orah Hayyim ("The Path of Life"; see Psalms 16:11); this section deals with worship and ritual observance in the home and synagogue, through the course of the day, the weekly Sabbath and the festival cycle.

Yoreh De'ah ("Teacher of Knowledge"; see Isaiah 28:9); this section deals with assorted ritual prohibitions, especially dietary laws and regulations concerning menstrual impurity.

Even Ha-'Ezer ("The Rock of the Helpmate"; see 1 Samuel 5:1 and the Rabbinic interpretation of Genesis 2:18); this section deals with marriage, divorce and other issues in family law.

Hoshen Mishpat ("The Breastplate of Judgment"; see Exodus 28:15); this section deals with the administration and adjudication of civil law.

The origins of the Shulhan Arukh lie in Caro's earlier work, the Beit Yosef ("House of Joseph") a detailed commentary to the Tur in which Caro carefully examined each of the laws recorded in the earlier code, showing the sources in Talmudic and medieval rabbinic literature, and comparing the interpretations and rulings of the leading medieval authorities. The Shulhan Arukh summarizes the conclusions of the Beit Yosef.  In general, Caro based his decisions on three earlier pillars of Jewish codification: the eleventh-century Spanish authority Rabbi Isaac Alfasi ("Rif"), Maimonides ("Rambam") and Rabbi Asher ben Jehiel ("Rosh," or "Asheri"), the father of the Tur's compiler. In cases of disagreement among those three, Caro usually followed the majority position. Although some Rabbis initially opposed basing religious law on a summary code, rather than going back to the original legal sources, the Shulhan Arukh rapidly came to be accepted in almost all Jewish communities as the most authoritative statement of normative religious law. In recent generations, acceptance of the Shulhan Arukh has come to be regarded as a defining criterion of religious Orthodoxy and traditionalism.

On the recto of the front free endpaper there can be found, written in a distinctive sixteenth-century hand, a particularly compelling remark written by an early owner of the Shulhan Arukh. He writes that in order to complete the study of the entire text each month, one would be required to complete sixteen and one half leaves each day. Discounting all the title pages, index pages, introductions, colophons and the blank leaves, the determined scholar discovered  that the remaining 488 leaves, if studied at that rate, could in fact be completed once every 29½ days, the exact length of the average month in the Hebrew calendar.

Despite having been reviewed by censors in each of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there are only a handful of erasures discernable in this single-volume set. The final act of censorship was by the fanatical Phillip Maria Peruzzotti in 1754 at Lugo. Following a series of nocturnal raids into the ghettos to confiscate cartloads of Hebrew books, Peruzzotti was appointed "revisor" of Hebrew books. Not content with the work of earlier censors and consumed by the concern that the book's Jewish owner might reinsert expurgated passages, he added the following codicil on the final page: "...If any censored passage may be found replaced within this book, regardless of who has caused this, the possessor of the book shall be fined 100 scudi."  The notice is countersigned by the owner of the Shulhan Arukh, Solomon Pinto, acknowledging his acquiescence.