Bidspirit auction | Yad HaChazakah of the Rambam

Yad HaChazakah of the Rambam — Venice 1550–1551 The Edition Entangled in the Feud that Led to the Burning of the Talmud Rambam, Sefer Yad HaChazakah, chelek sheini, on the seder Hafla’ah and Shoftim, together with the Maggid Mishneh, Migdal Oz, and the hagahos of the Maharam of Padua. Printed by the press of Yoshtinyan, (יושטינייאן)  Venice, 1550–1551. An early and significant edition — historically bound up with the bitter machlokes between the the Venetian printers Yoshtinyan and Bragadin As is well known, through mutual mesirah and denunciations, the matter escalated before the Church authorities, until Pope Julius III decreed — on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, 1553 — the public burning of the Talmud, רחמנא ליצלן. See Teshuvos HaRema (siman 10) and A. Yaari, Mechkarai Sefer (pp. 198–234) regarding the background and hishtalshelus of these events. The Machlokes of the Printers — and the Srefas HaTalmud In mid-1500s Venice, two Hebrew printing houses stood at the center of the sefer world: Yoshtinyan and Bragadin . Each sought to print the Rambam and the Talmud with superior editions, hagahos, and mefarshim. What began as commercial rivalry turned into bitter personal enmity. Instead of competing through quality, the printers began accusing one another before the non-Jewish authorities — each claiming the other was printing forbidden or dangerous material. These denunciations escalated until the matter reached the Church hierarchy. The result was catastrophic. In 1553, Pope Julius III issued a decree that all copies of the Talmud in his lands be confiscated and burned. Thousands upon thousands of volumes — precious, often handwritten or early printed Gemaros — were gathered in public squares and set aflame. This became known as the infamous Srefas HaTalmud. Contemporary gedolim, among them the Rema, point directly to this machlokes between Yoshtinyan and Bragadin as the chain of events that brought about the gezeirah. Thus, certain Venetian printings from those very years — including this edition — are forever bound up with one of the darkest and most tragic episodes in the history of the seforim world. From the Rema (Siman 10):  “And because of the jealousy between the printers, each casting aspersions upon the other before the authorities, the matter eventually came before the Pope, who decreed a gezeirah that all the Talmuds in his lands be burned in fire…” And further he writes: “It is well known that this entire tragedy stemmed from the dispute between the printers in Venice, Yoshtinyan and Bragadin, whose rivalry and quarrel with one another brought about this calamity…”