Bidspirit auction | Tractate Sotah – Venice, 1520

Tractate Sotah – Venice, 1520 – Bomberg Printing. First Edition, with early scholastic marginalia. - Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sotah, with the commentaries of Rashi and Tosafot. At the end of the tractate were printed Piskei Tosafot and Maimonides’ commentary on the Mishnah. Venice, [1520], at the press of Daniel Bomberg. This is the very first complete edition of the Babylonian Talmud, and the first edition of this tractate in particular. In this edition the familiar “Talmud page layout” (tzurat ha-daf) was established for generations (with only very minor variations in subsequent editions). To a large extent, the text of the Talmud in later printings also follows this edition. This Talmud is “almost free of the damages of censorship” (R. N. N. Rabinovitz, Essay on the Printing of the Talmud, p. 41). Today, manuscripts of Rashi’s commentary on the Babylonian Talmud that predate printing still exist, but not for Tractate Sotah. (According to Dr. Ezra Chwat, Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts, National Library of Israel, Jerusalem). This means that before us stands the earliest extant version of Rashi on Tractate Sotah – a fact of great importance. Rarity of the present tractate : This edition of the Talmud is among the rarest, and of immense historical value. As stated, this is the very first time Tractate Sotah was ever printed. In general, this tractate is one of the rarest among all tractates of the Talmud printed in that period. The rare diagram: On folio 43a there appears a printed diagram in Rashi’s commentary illustrating the location of five fruit-bearing trees. This is the only printed diagram to be found in Bomberg’s edition of the Talmud. In all other places where diagrams and illustrations were expected, the printer left a blank space to be filled in by hand after printing. Various studies have been written on this subject (see R. Eli Gernauer, “The Impression of a Diagram”, available online). Furthermore, in all editions of the Talmud from Bomberg’s Venice printing of 1520 until the Behrmann edition (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1690s), no diagrams appear on the Talmud’s pages. Printers simply omitted them, leaving blank spaces. Signatures and marginalia: Throughout the tractate appear handwritten scholia in the margins, with references to other places in the Talmud, written by at least two different hands. One of the annotators – who wrote most of the notes – apparently lived around the time of printing, in the 1520s. On the final page are ownership inscriptions, as well as a rare note recording that the owner had completed learning this tractate and was moving on to Tractate Kiddushin. Some of the notes are textual corrections, explicitly citing the emendations of “Rashal” (Rabbi Shlomo Luria, the Maharshal), the earliest and most prominent corrector of the Talmud’s printed text, known from his work Hokhmat Shlomo. ”Registro” table on final page, listing the gatherings and opening text of each sheet (to facilitate bookbinding). 53 Leaves. 34.6 Cm.