Toledot Adam ve-Havvah (Chronicles of Adam and Eve) and Sefer Mesharim (Book of the Upright), Jeroham ben Meshullam (Rabbenu Yeruham), Constantinople: ibn Nahmias: 1516

408 leaves (11x 7¾ in.; 280 x 195 mm). FOLIATION: [14], 1-272, 1-122. Folio woodcut title border, owner's note on title; woodcut initial word panel on verso of title; printers device on final leaf. Initial leaf remargined, holed affecting only individual letters; first and last leaves strengthened at gutter; dampstaining, mostly at margins; minor worming, not affecting text. Blind tooled modern calf.

Vinograd, Constantinople 83; Ya'ari, Constantinople 50

After the expulsion of the Jews from France in 1306, Jeroham ben Meshullam (c. 1290-1350), a native of Provence, wandered through several countries before settling in Toledo, Spain, where he studied with Asher ben Jehiel (the Rosh). In his first known work, the Sefer Mesharim, a treatise on civil law, Jeroham arranged the relevant laws according to their subjects, noted their sources and origins in the Talmud, and collected the decisions of many scholars, including French, Provençal and Spanish authorities. He was meticulous in arranging his work so that it was easily navigable by both "great scholars and minor students." At the urging of his contemporaries, Jeroham composed a second work based on the life cycle entitled Toledot Adam ve-Havvah. Though highly esteemed by later codifiers, who quoted him extensively, such as Joseph Caro and Samuel de Medina, Jeroham's works enjoyed only brief popularity before they were superseded by the Arba'ah Turim of Jacob ben Asher. Both Sefer Mesharim and Toledot Adam ve-Havvah were printed for the first time in a single volume in Constantinople in 1516 and enjoyed a resurgence in popularity.