Img. ID: 194295
Fols. 9-9v: The opening page of the Introduction to the Enumeration of Precepts arranged by Abraham ibn Hassan Halevi (fol. 9). It is written within a full-page decorated frame of three trefoil arches (see Decoration Programme, Type a). The frame is composed of interlacing bands of geometrical and floral motifs in spared-ground technique surrounded by yellow or violet on a green and red ground. The knotted bands create diamond-shaped capitals and bases for the columns. The spandrels are filled with a palmette motif interlace which extends above the frame and to the four corners. The verso (fol. 9v) is similarly decorated, though the arrangement of colours is different, and some gold leaf was added in the capitals.
Other examples of Type a: pointed trefoil arches.
Inserted between two parts of the massoretic lists of Scribe A, preceding the biblical text, are Scribe B's decorative tables (fols. 9-24v), which include the Introduction to the 613 precepts arranged by Abraham ibn Hassan Halevi (Steinschneider 1895:216), and based on the Book of Precepts written by Maimonides. Little is known about this author. His treatise was published as an appendix to the Bomberg Bible (Venice, 1517) under the title: "Commandments and Prohibitions, by Rabbi Abraham ibn Hassan Halevi". The work was originally written in Arabic and was translated into Hebrew and expanded byJudahben Shoshan, who is otherwise unknown. A Latin translation of the text was made by the converted Polish Jew, Philip Ferdinand and printed inCanterburyin 1597.