The ground-breaking and all-encompassing Mishneh Torah, written by the illustrious scholar Maimonides and completed in 1180, became the first comprehensive post-Talmudic code of Jewish law to be arranged according to subject matter. Maimonides (1138–1204), born in Spain and later active in North Africa and Egypt, was a philosopher and a legal thinker whose writings shaped Jewish law for centuries. This manuscript of the Mishneh Torah was copied in Spain in the 15th century and is open to Sefer Taharah, a section of the book which deals with the laws of ritual purity. The delicate red and purple filigree penwork surrounding the opening words and the burnished gold leaf are typical of contemporary Spanish manuscript decoration.