Moses Maimonides

Mishneh Torah (Repetition of the Law). Soncino: Gershom Soncino, 1 Nisan [5]250 (23 March 1490)



Median folio (12 x 8½ in.; 307 x 220 mm). Types 3:90 (sq.), 2:119 (sq.), 1:240 (sq.). Metalcut border (cut into 4 pieces), metalcut initials letters, panels, and small decorative blocks (Thes A55.2, 3, 7). Double-column, 52 lines (variable). collation: 1–5^{8 6:712; 8–298 29:1–29:88; 18 31–408: 279 (of 280 leaves); lacking only the final blank, preserving the blank leaf 29:8/8; many leaves stained, worming at the end, a tear in middle of 4/7 without text loss. Early seventeenth-century sheep, blind fillets, remains of two brass clasps, edges lightly stained green; rebacked, leather repairs to tips, endleaves renewed.}

"Simon, son of the martyr Rabbi Yohanan (may God avenge him) purchased this book" (Hebrew inscription, c. 1600?) — Abraham bar-Yitzkhak Neuen (eighteenth-century circular stamp with crown, surname uncertain)

Offenberg 88; Goff Heb-77; Hain 10523; Steinschneider 6513.2; Thes A55; Iakerson 43; BMC XIII 47 (C.50.e.7)

Mishneh Torah (Repetition of the Law). Soncino: Gershom Soncino, 1 Nisan [5]250 (23 March 1490) Median folio (12 x 8½ in.; 307 x 220 mm). Types 3:90 (sq.), 2:119 (sq.), 1:240 (sq.). Metalcut border (cut into 4 pieces), metalcut initials letters, panels, and small decorative blocks (Thes A55.2, 3, 7). Double-column, 52 lines (variable). collation: 1–58 6:712; 8–298 29:1–29:88; 18 31–408: 279 (of 380 leaves); lacking only the final blank, preserving the blank leaf 29:8/8; many leaves stained, worming at the end, a tear in middle of 4/7 without text loss. Early seventeenth-century sheep, blind fillets, remains of two brass clasps, edges lightly stained green; rebacked, leather repairs to tips, endleaves renewed.
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Second edition, preceded by the edition of unknown place signed by Solomon ben Judah and Obadiah ben Moses, ca. 1475 (Offenberg 87). The Mishneh Torah, a compendium of Talmudic and post-Talmudic law, was finished or completed in Cairo, 1180. It is the only work of Maimonides composed in Hebrew and not Arabic. Its alternative title (given in the colophon) is Yad ha-Hazakah (The Strong Hand), where yad, corresponding to the number 14, alludes to the fourteen books making up the work. The division of the typesetting of Gershom Soncino's edition into different composition units, with some miscalculations, must have been the ultimate cause of its peculiar quire numbering. The first six quires contain Books I–II. Books III–X began a new unit with a quire numbered 8 (the introduction to Book III was printed later, on the last leaf verso of the first unit, the recto being blank). Because the second unit began as quire no. 8, the last quire of the first unit was numbered 6:7, instead of simply as 6. Similarly, Books XI–XIV began a new composition unit ith its first quire numbered 1 (an error for 30, it seems), followed by 31-40. The last eight quires of the second unit, following quire 29, were numbered 29:1–29:8 instead of 30–37, apparently to avoid having duplicated quire numbers as already set in unit III. The colophon ends with the name of the editor, Eliezer ben Samuel. On 5/6r are three diagrams, the first apparently a crude woodcut and the second and third made by type rules, regarding the correct manufacture of tefillin. BMC XIII gives the paper size as Chancery, but the breadth of the leaves in various copies, up to 230 mm after trimming, suggests that the paper size was the slightly larger Median.