Auction 69 - Part I -Rare and Important Items
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Bechorot – with the Rashi and Tosafot commentaries, Piskei Tosafot and Rabbenu Asher. Venice: Daniel Bomberg, 1522. First edition.
Volume from the first Talmud edition printed by Daniel Bomberg in Venice. This is the first edition comprising the entire Babylonian Talmud. This famous edition (The Venice Talmud) served as prototype for all future Talmud editions. The text of the Talmud was then established for all times, as well as the page layout and pagination used until this day.
Ownership inscriptions and handwritten emendations. Inscription in Sephardic script on title page, documenting the start of the study of this tractate in 1640: "We began the Gemara of Bechorot on the 2nd day of Chanukah 1640". Ownership inscriptions around the initial word on leaf 2, deleted with ink.
Complete copy, including title page. 69 leaves. 8 gatherings of 8 leaves each, ninth gathering – 5 leaves. 33.5 cm. Very good condition. Stains, several ink stains. Title page professionally restored. Lower corners cut diagonally. New binding.
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Segulot of Studying Tractate Bechorot
R. Chaim Kanievsky is wont to say that the study of Tractate Bechorot, which deals with defects, is a segulah for recovery.
R. Yoshiyahu Pinto attests that studying Tractate Bechorot is considered like fasting (Divrei Yoshiyahu, Levav Yamim, p. 183).
First edition containing the complete translation to the Six Orders of the Mishnah. The commentaries of the Rambam and R. Ovadia of Bartenura were also translated.
Willem Surenhuis (1664-1729), a Dutch Christian scholar, studied in the Groningen university and later taught in Amsterdam. He was primarily renowned for this comprehensive translation of the Mishnah.
Each of the six orders opens with a fine, engraved title page, featuring the names of all the tractates of that order, and vignettes illustrating the principal content of each tractate. Apart from these engravings, the volumes contain nine fine engraved plates (including one double-page and four folding plates), which illustrate various laws discussed in the Mishnah. Two of the engravings are signed in the plate in Hebrew: "By Yitzchak Sofer" (presumably made by R. Isaac Coenraads, scribe of the Ashkenazi community in Amsterdam, mentioned in the foreword to part V. R. Isaac Coenraads is recorded as having played a central role in the creation of the engravings accompanying the first three orders. See enclosed material).
Several other in-text engravings. Title pages printed in red and black.
Vol. I: [49], 332, [20] pages + [5] engraved plates (including engraved title page) and [14] pages of accompanying explanations; [21], 424, [16] pages + [4] engraved plates (including engraved title page) and [8] pages of accompanying explanations. Vol. II: [33], 384, [15] pages + [2] engraved plates (including engraved title page) and [2] pages of accompanying explanations; [39], 503, [12] pages + [1] engraved title page. Vol. III: [45], 394, [10] pages + [2] engraved plates (including engraved title page); [43], 504, [12] pages + [1] engraved title page. Pp. 186-190 in first part of vol. III bound in wrong order. Approx. 36 cm. High-quality paper. Good condition. Stains. Minor damage in a few places. Left margin of engraved title page of part I trimmed, repaired with paper. Marginal tears to one folding plate (affecting engraving). Fine, matching old half-leather bindings. Wear and damage to bindings, tears to spines. Front cover of vol. I detached. Bookplates. Placed in matching clamshell boxes.
The Frankfurt an der Oder 1697-1699 Talmud edition was printed under the watchful eye of the Prussian-Christian censorship. This resulted in the omission of numerous passages (lines, and even entire paragraphs) which relate to gentiles or Yeshu (Jesus). The printers left empty spaces in the places where passages were omitted (in the text of the Talmud, the Rashi and Tosafot commentaries), and did not join the lines after the omission to the lines before it (unlike other printers). Ten years later, two Jewish brothers in Amsterdam initiated the printing of these leaves, which contain the passages censored from the Frankfurt an der Oder edition, arranged in the right size and format to fit within the empty spaces left in that edition. This was done in order to enable the buyers to cut the passages and past them in the corresponding spaces, and thus create a complete edition. The printing of the passages was done very accurately, so that each passage should fit exactly in its place in the middle of the page or even line. It must be noted that this venture was presumably only feasible in Amsterdam, which was under the much more tolerant Protestant rule, as opposed to the Prussian area where the Talmud was printed.
Heading the first page, the "Approbations of the great luminaries, the rabbis of Amsterdam" describe the censorship omissions in the Frankfurt an der Oder edition of the Talmud, and the purpose of these leaves: "The Talmud printed in Frankfurt an der Oder was made with many bald patches in various places in the text of the Talmud, Rashi and Tosafot, leaving whoever studies it perplexed, and this was done for the known reason. And now, two brothers, R. Shimon, beadle of our community, and his brother R. Yitzchak, have courageously decided to benefit the public… and have searched through the pages, one by one, to print all the missing parts in their original format… so that each and every person can paste each passage in its place, and there is nothing lacking or superfluous, since everything was done with careful thought…". The approbation is dated Cheshvan 1708, and is signed by R. Aryeh Leib Rabbi of the Ashkenazi community in Amsterdam, and R. Shlomo Ayllon Rabbi of the Sephardim.
These leaves are very rare (not listed in the Bibliography of the Hebrew Book, nor in the NLI catalog). Apart from the unlikelihood of single leaves surviving for several centuries (and supposing that the leaves were printed in a limited number of copies), it can be assumed that the buyers cut and pasted the leaves in the right places in their Talmud set, and therefore almost no complete sheets remain. It is also possible that the distribution of these leaves was prohibited in certain places, or that they were destroyed for fear of the authorities.
[2] sheets of paper, printed on one side (4 pages). Approx. 34 cm. Fair condition. Stains. Tears affecting text, professionally repaired with paper.
• Enclosed is a volume of this Talmud edition – Tractates Sanhedrin, Makkot, Shevuot, Horayot, Eduyot, Avot and Minor Tractates. Frankfurt an der Oder, [1698]. Many of the censorship omissions are concentrated in this volume, in Tractate Sanhedrin (see picture 93a).
Multiple paginations. 35.5 cm. Condition varies: overall fair condition, several leaves in poor condition. Stains and wear. Large tears and worming, affecting text. Several detached leaves. Signatures and inscriptions. Old binding, damaged and detached.