Sefer Mitsṿot Gadol
Moses ben Jacob, of Coucy, active 13th century
Sefer Mitsṿot Gadol (Great Book of Commandments)
Soncino: Gershom ben Moses Soncino, 1488
Two editions of Sefer Mitsṿot Gadol (Great Book of Commandments) by Moses ben Jacob of Coucy are among the earliest Hebrew books ever published. The New York Public Library has both editions. The author, a French rabbi and an important halachah scholar, drew extensively from Moses Maimonides’s fundamental works that provided the pioneering codification of the 613 commandments (mitsṿot) mentioned in the Torah (The Five Books of Moses). Moses ben Jacob of Coucy further examined and organized the mitsṿot, emphasizing the practical importance of Maimonides’s scholarship, and facilitated its dissemination.
The current edition was produced in the Italian town of Soncino in 1488 by the most illustrious, prolific, and innovative member of the Soncino family of printers, Gershom Soncino (died in 1534). Sefer Mitsṿot Gadol was the first book Soncino published. Among his myriad accomplishments was a breakthrough in woodcut embellishments of the whole words in the Hebrew books that he produced. They stand out for their very distinctive lettering and perfectly proportioned elements of floral design in the elegant framing of the words. The page on display features the ornamented large word mitsvah and represents the opening for the main part of the book, which explains in detail the meaning of every commandment.
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