Shulhan ha-Tahor, Joseph Pardo, Amsterdam: 1770

100 leaves (3 3/4 x 2 1/2 in.; 97 x 65 mm). [8], 92. Title within illustrated border. lightly browned. Small marginal tear, minor loss at upper corner, f. 6. Marbled edges and endpapers. Contemporary calf, double gilt fillet; worn; rebacked.

Vinograd, Amsterdam 1993; Gans, Memorbook p.186 (illustrated).

Shulhan ha-Tahor (The Pure Table) is a concise summary of halakhic rulings, from the first two parts of Joseph Caro's Shulhan Arukh. Written by Joseph Pardo, hazzan in London (d. 1677), it was edited posthumously by the author’s son David and was first printed in 1686, in Amsterdam. The stag which appears on the attractive title page is a reference to Tzvi Hirsch Premsyl of Prague, who published this edition in 1770. There is also a vignette portraying three men in period dress dinning at a "prepared table," an allusion to the title of the book and by extension to Caro's Shulhan Arukh (Set Table.)