Beschreibung:

JACOB BEN ASHER (d. ca. 1340). Arba'ah Turim , in Hebrew (The Four Columns: Code of Law). Ed. and corr. Eliahu ben Benjamin Halevi. Constantinople: David and Samuel Ibn Nahmias, 13th December 1493. Part II Yoreh De'ah (Teacher of Knowledge) and Part IV Hoshen ha-Mishpat (Breastplate of Judgement) only, bound in 1 volume, chancery 2° (300 x 195 mm). Collation: II: [9-10 8 11 1 0 ], 26 leaves only (lacking 1-8 8 ); IV: [1-16 8 ], 128 leaves only (lacking 17-18 8 19 6 ). Various Italian paperstocks (watermarks as listed and illustrated by Offenberg). Semi-cursive text-type 1:91 cast from matrices struck by Joshua Solomon ben Israel Nathan Soncino at Naples, square heading-type from the Hijar Press of Eliezer ben Abraham Alantansi 4:230. Double column (long lines on 10/4.7 and 10/5.6), 47-51 lines. (Lacking parts I and III, the first 64 leaves of pt. II and the last 22 leaves of pt. IV, tear in fo. 14/1 affecting two lines of text, a few small holes at beginning and end, a few very minor stains.) Modern gilt leather binding, by A. Price. Provenance : Eric H.L. Sexton (omitted from the Sexton sale, Christie's New York, 8th April 1981) Third complete edition. THE ONLY INCUNABLE PRINTED AT CONSTANTINOPLE. A.K. Offenberg, Hebrew Incunabula in Public Collections. A first international census (1990) 63, records ten copies in various states of imperfection in eight libraries and one small fragment; to these must now be added a complete copy at the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana, Amsterdam, and the Penrose-Sexton copy of pt. III at the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. For the latest and best account of this extremely important book in the history of Hebrew typography, see A.K. Offenberg, A Choice of Corals. Facets of Fifteenth-Century Hebrew Printing (1992), chapter V "The first printed book produced at Constantinople." De Rossi I, 50; Steinschneider 5500.3; Goldstein 104; A. Freimann, Thesaurus typographiae hebraicae saeculi XV C1; Goff Heb-49.