Maimonides Moses

APHORISMI SECUNDUM DOCTRINAM GALENI

      Bologna: Franciscus de Benedictis for Benedictus Hectorism , 1489. Scarce First Edition. Pages hand-numbered in red and with contemporary manuscript marginal notations in red. Small 4to, contemporary blindstamped half calf over wooden boards, with remnants of brass clasps, endpapers at some time renewed. Bound with 5 pages of contemporary, or near-contemporary, manuscript notes. 129 leaves A very handsome and well preserved copy, the back long ago renewed, with wear and aging to the binding, occasional but minor evidence of age throughout, marginal notations throughout in several differing hands indicative of generations of scholarly use.. SCARCE INCUNABULA EDITION OF MAIMONIDES CLASSIC TEXT ON THE REGIMEN OF HEALTH, ONE OF THE PRIMARY WORKS OF MAIMONIDES, ONE OF THE GREATEST JEWISH SCHOLARS OF ALL TIME. This is the only incunabula of Moses Maimonides to be printed at Bologna and is believed to be the only Jewish author de Benedictis published. OIf one did not know that Maimonides was the name of a man, Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, one would assume it was the name of a university. The writings and achievements of this twelfth-century Jewish sage seem to cover an impossibly large number of activities. Maimonides was the first person to write a systematic code of all Jewish law, the Mishneh Torah; he produced one of the great philosophic statements of Judaism, The Guide to the Perplexed; published a commentary on the entire Mishna; served as physician to the sultan of Egypt; wrote numerous books on medicine; and, in his "spare time," served as leader of Cairo's Jewish community MaimonidesO full name was Moses ben Maimon; in Hebrew he is known by the acronym of Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, Rambam. He was born in Spain shortly before the fanatical Muslim Almohades came to power there. To avoid persecution by the Muslim sect N which was wont to offer Jews and Christians the choice of conversion to Islam or death N Maimonides fled with his family, first to Morocco, later to Israel, and finally to Egypt. He apparently hoped to continue his studies for several years more, but when his brother David, a jewelry merchant, perished in the Indian Ocean with much of the family's fortune, he had to begin earning money. He probably started practicing medicine at this time. MaimonidesO major contribution to Jewish life remains the Mishneh Torah, his code of Jewish law. His intention was to compose a book that would guide Jews on how to behave in all situations just by reading the Torah and his code, without having to expend large amounts of time searching through the Talmud. Needless to say, this provocative rationale did not endear Maimonides to many traditional Jews, who feared that people would rely on his code and no longer study the Talmud. Despite sometimes intense opposition, the Mishneh Torah became a standard guide to Jewish practice: It later served as the model for the Shulkhan Arukh, the sixteenth-century code of Jewish law that is still regarded as authoritative by Orthodox Jews.O -Joseph Telushkin