Halakha · R' Yaakov ben Asher (the Tur) · 14th c. · Spain · Codex · Arba'ah Turim · Civil Law · Foundational

טור חשן משפט — כתב יד מ־ה׳קמ״ח

Ṭur Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ — an early manuscript of the Tur's civil-law code (1388)

1388 (5148) · The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary

A 1388 manuscript of Ṭur Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ — the civil-law volume of the Arba'ah Turim, R' Yaakov ben Asher's (the Tur, c. 1269–c. 1343) great fourfold halakhic code. The Arba'ah Turim — Orach Chayim, Yoreh De'ah, Even ha-Ezer, and Choshen Mishpat — was composed in Toledo in the early 14th century and became the second great halakhic compendium of the medieval period after the Rambam's Mishneh Torah. Choshen Mishpat treats the civil law: debts and damages, partnerships, contracts, inheritance, and the practical machinery of Jewish jurisprudence as it had developed since the Talmud. The Tur's structural innovation — gathering each topic's halakhic history into a single sequence of presentations — would later become the bones on which R' Yosef Karo built his Beit Yosef commentary and the Shulchan Arukh. This codex was written in 1388, only about fifty years after the Tur's death, making it one of the closest surviving textual witnesses to Choshen Mishpat as it left his hands. A downloadable PDF facsimile is also available.