Mishneh Torah L’HaRambam with
Kessef Mishneh
First Edition. Complete Set. Venice, 1574-1576
Rare, spectacular set!
Printed during the Kessef Mishneh’s lifetime!
Mishneh Torah L’HaRambam with the first edition of Kessef Mishneh by Rabbi Yosef Karo, author of the Beis Yosef and Shulchan Aruch.
This complete set presents in four beautiful volumes, in extra-large format with wide margins, and each volume ornately bound in new matching leather bindings.
The Venice 1574 edition of Mishneh Torah L’HaRambam left an indelible mark on Jewish history as one of the most important editions of Rambam:
1.
Kessef Mishneh – This was the first edition of Mishneh Torah L’HaRambam to include the Kessef Mishneh commentary.
2.
The Rambam’s precise text – This edition was printed based on handwritten manuscripts sent from Tzfas as well as a sefer sent from the renowned Yeshivah in Alexandria, Egypt, Headed by Rabbi Betzalel Ashkenazy and his disciples who were the scholars who edited and proofread volumes of Gemara and Rishonim based on authentic manuscripts. In this edition of the Rambam, the editors corrected thousands of printing errors found in previous editions in the writings of the Rambam, as well as the Raavad and Maggid Mishnah.
3.
Tzuras Hadaf – This edition became the prototype for all future editions of Mishneh Torah L’HaRambam with the Kessef Mishneh on one side of the Ramban’s text and the Maggid Mishnah on the opposite side.
The Beis Yosef personally sent the manuscript of this sefer to be printed in Venice and assigned the Rema of Pano to oversee the printing process. However a year later, in the course of printing , the Beis Yosef restored his soul to the heaven, as described in the eulogy appended to the end of Volume 4.
Venice, 1574-1576. First edition of Kessef Mishneh.
Vol.1 (Mada-Zmanim), 1574. [22], 316.
Vol. 2 (Nashim, Kedushah), 1574. [1], 219.
Vol. 3 (Hafla’ah-Taharah), 1574. [20], 451, [1].
Vol. 4 (Nezikin-Shoftim), 1576. [10], 297, [9] leaves.
Page size: 32.2 cm. Restorations and paper filler on the margins of several pages . Complete 4-volume set with matching ornate leather bindings.
Stefansky, Sifrei Yesod #143
Provenance:
1. The title page and last page of Volume 1 boast an inscription that the set belonged to the writer’s grandfather
Rabbi Yitzchak Segal Landau, who served as Av Beis Din of Cracow. Rabbi Yitzchak Segal Landau was the uncle of the Noda B’Yehudah. and contemporary of the Pnei Yehoshua.
Rabbi Yehonasan Eibschtuz wrote upon him: “Premier leader of all leaders, there is no one greater than he…Singular in his generation.”
It is known that his nephew, the Noda B’Yehudah conditioned a heter that he delivered to an agunah to remarry upon the approval of “three pillars of the world, ” first and foremost “My honorable uncle Harav Hagaon Moreinu Harav Yitzchak Segal, Av Beis Din of Lvov and its environs” (Shu”t Noda B’Yehudah First Edition, Even Ha’ezer Ch. 29). Rabbi Yitzchak Segal Landau’s noted descendants include the Admor Rabbi Chaim of Sanz and the Sanzer dynasty.
This volume also features the autographs of
Rabbi Yitzchak Landau’s sons Rabbi Yaakov Segal Landau, Av Bein Din of Tarnopol who was a son-in-law of the Knesses Yechezkel, and the last page features the autograph of another son,
Rabbi Yosef Segal Landau, Av Beis Din of Graidig.
2. The title page of Volume 4 features the autograph of
Rabbi Emanuel ben Rabbi Yitzchak Bentzion Chai Ricci (circa 1675 – 1758), a renowned Italian rabbi and cousin of the famed kabbalist Rabbi Emanuel Chai Ricci, author of Mishnas Chassidim. Rabbi Emanuel served as rabbi in Finale de Modena and Ferrara. Several handwritten comments in Italian were inscribed in the margins beside his signature, along with an inscription stating that Rabbi Emanuel passed away on 5 Kislev, 5518 (1758), which is the first known record of the date of his death.
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