Isaac of Corbeil († 1280) is the author of this halakhic Small
Book of Commandments also known as Sefer Mitzvot Katan (abbreviated
SeMaK). This abridged version of the 613 positive and negative
biblical commandments, and a few additional rabbinic ones, has been
divided into seven daily sections to be read sequentially and
completed once a week. After becoming popular in France, the SeMaK
quickly reached Germany, where it was recognized as an
authoritative halakhic work. This manuscript, B115, is the latest
of the three manuscripts in the Braginsky Collection (also B240 and
B182), exemplifying the complex diffusion of the SeMaK in Germany.
The glosses are the work of Moses of Zurich, who lived in Zurich in
the middle of the fourteenth century. Consequently, manuscripts
containing Moses' glosses are called the Zürcher. Often comments
and glosses in the form of rectangular shaped “windows” were
added in the margins or in the text itself, producing aesthetically
pleasing and imaginative page layouts. By not identifying the
sources of these glosses, scribes frequently created difficulties
in determining authorship of the commentaries.
