Bidspirit auction | KARO, YOSEPH. Shulchan Aruch [Code

KARO, YOSEPH. Shulchan Aruch [Code of Jewish Law]. With commentary Gur Aryeh by R. Yoseph ben Ephraim Gur Aryeh HaLevi Finzi. Complete in four parts, bound into two volumes. Four separate title-pages. Orach Chaim with very distinct title (see below). Hebrew inscriptions on title-pages stating that Madam Victoria Lombroso gifted these books to the Neve Shalom synagogue and study-hall. ff. (2), 288; 268, (1). 4to. Vinograd, Mantua 315. Mantua, Isaac Yareh- Jacob Haver Tov, 1722. Orach Chaim with rare title-page depicting six vignette portraits of the principal Halachic exegetes: Rashi, Rambam, Maharil, Maharik, Rema and R. Gur Aryeh.  Reputedly, the Mantua rabbinate found these artistic depictions to be disrespectful and ordered the destruction of the original title page. R. Gur Aryeh HaLevi Finzi (d. 1697), author of the Gur Aryeh commentary, was appointed Dayan of Mantua in 1665. He corresponded with many of the leading sages of his generation and dozens of his responsa exist throughout the literature. He also left his mark on Kabbalistic wisdom as recorded by the Chid’a in his Shem HaGedolim (Gedolim, 40, on the entry of the R. Moshe Zacuto): ”I heard that he [the Ramaz] had a Maggid, and Rabbi Gur Aryeh, who wrote glosses on the Shulchan Aruch printed in Mantua, attested that he himself heard the Angel speaking in him.” See also Otzar HaRabbanim no. 4370.