“A MAJOR SOURCE OF HALAKHIC CREATIVE AND TALMUDIC RESEARCH EQUALED ONLY BY THE TALMUD”: FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF MAIN PRINCIPLES OF THE CREED, 1832, WITH KEY SELECTIONS FROM MAIMONIDES’ MONUMENTAL MISHNEH TORAH

(MAIMONIDES) BERNARD, Herman Hedwig. The Main Principles of the Creed and Ethics of the Jews, Exhibited in Selections from the Yad Hachazakah of Maimonides. Cambridge: J. Smith, 1832. Octavo, modern full polished tan calf, elaborately gilt-decorated spine, raised bands, red and black morocco spine labels, marbled endpapers, uncut.

First English edition of Bernard’s seminal translation of major selections from Maimonides’ influential Mishneh Torah (also known as Yad Hachazakah).

The influence of Maimonides (Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, or Rambam) “is incalculable… He was the great exponent of reason and faith in theology” (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Compiled in 1180, his Mishneh Torah is “unprecedented in Jewish dogmatic jurisprudence.” Maimonides wrote this powerful work, also known as Yad Hachazakah, in “a beautiful and lucid Hebrew, the like of which had not been known in halakhic literature since Judah ha-Nasi… His aim in compiling the Code was ‘so that no other work should be needed for ascertaining any of the laws of Israel… It became the major source of halakhic creative and Talmudic research equaled only by the Talmud” (Encyclopaedia Judaica, 754-67). In Main Principles of the Creed, a translation of key selections from the Mishneh Torah, Cambridge scholar Bernard herein writes of his wish to introduce Maimonides to English readers, especially “respecting some of the most interesting and important questions, as regard the Deity, the Angels, Prophecy, Sin, Repentance, Free-will, Predestination.” Bernard’s translation substantially “contributed to the flowering of Hebrew and Jewish letters in the period leading up to Jewish political emancipation” (Reif et al, Hebrew Manuscripts at Cambridge, 20). “The Hebrew text is beautifully printed without points; this is followed by a faithful English version and notes, and by a glossary of the rabbinical Hebrew words occurring the text, to which are prefixed a well-written sketch of the life of Maimonides and a collection of the abbreviations commonly used in rabbinical writings” (Horne, Introduction to the Critical Study, 161). With rear errata leaf. Text in English and Hebrew. Zedner, 585. Harris, 99. Owner inscription, inkstamp to title page. Occasional light marginalia.

A fine copy, beautifully bound.