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Many rabbonim who published important seforim are coloquially referred to by the names of one of the seforim. Why is this? When did it start?

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    A name makes the person ,and these gedolim are there seforim .
    – sam
    Apr 10, 2013 at 22:12
  • It makes sense: If someone wants to quote, say, the Tur - He's going to say "כתוב בטור". Compare the amount of times the Beis Yosef, the Bach, the Prisha/Drisha would refer to "the Tur says" over the amount of times one would refer to him as the person (as in R' Yaakov ben R' Asher was born in Germany)? Apr 10, 2013 at 23:54
  • Note, some works were known by name rather than by "title" (such as "the Rambam" over "the Mishna Torah") Apr 10, 2013 at 23:55
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    @Shmuel Youre mixing things up. כתוב בטור = it is written in Tur. Just like "It is written in The Tempest". It's not אמר הטור the Tur said. That would be like "The Tempest said in Act IV..." In old texts the author is usually written by name (רשב"א) by title (מרן) or in the context of his work (בעל העיטור), not by the title of his work itself. Using book titles that way is a much later development which is not grammatical and likely out of laziness or ignorance of the names of the authors. Can you tell me offhand the names of the authors of Taz, Shach, Bach, Magen Avraham and Sema'?
    – Double AA
    Apr 11, 2013 at 2:39
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    @ShmuelBrin Only the OP can tell us that, but I don't think that is odd at all, eg. "The poem's author is trying to convey that..." Seems like a pretty normal way of speaking.
    – Double AA
    Apr 11, 2013 at 2:56

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