Masechta Sanhedrin [Judges]. With commentary by Rashi, Tosafoth, etc.

JIM THIS INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO BE PLACED BEFORE LOT 140 : (please note, I have not finished proofing this intro and will probably send you another version soon. The length will more or less remain). THE BOMBERG EDITIONS OF THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD (Lots 140-150). At the heart of Judaism is its legal tradition with the Babylonian Talmud being its indispensable handbook. Daniel Bomberg’s editions of 1520-23 formed the edito princeps of the Babylonian Talmud setting the standard pagination and layout to which almost all subsequent editions adhered: a section of the Mishnah text followed by its Gemara, the commentary of Rashi on the inner margin and that of the Tosaphists on the outer. The uniformity of pages in all published editions was of great practical use to Talmudic scholars, creating a standard for reference citation and serving as a symbol of the unity of the Jewish people which Talmud study across the ages has enhanced. Born a Christian to the Antwerp merchant Cornelius Van Bombergen in 1483, it is clear that Daniel’s interest in Jewish matters was more than merely pecuniary. Indeed, he spent his life and fortune on Jewish matters assisting Marranos escaping the Iberian Peninsula and securing certain rights for his numerous Jewish employees. Most significantly for the course of Jewish heritage and history, Bomberg’s press printed the most important books in the Jewish Library. In 1518, he successfully petitioned the Venetian Senate for the exclusive right to print the Talmud, a project officially endorsed by Pope Leo X who granted Bomberg a license. Pope Leo X demonstrated liberal attitudes; despite a watchful eye for works of heresy, he was certainly no enemy of Jewish literature. It is likely however, that his approval of the publication of the Talmud was motivated at least in part by the obvious commercial implications. The awesome task of editing the first Bomberg Talmud was entrusted to R. Hiyya Meir ben David, one of the first Dayyanim (Judges) of Venetian Jewry. Working from earlier printings of individual Tractates as well as directly from the manuscripts, Hiyya checked the proofs of the Talmud and its commentaries for accuracy, a task which given its enormity in a space of three years, he accomplished masterfully. See: M. Heller, Printing the Talmud, (1992) pp. 135-141 & R. N. N. Rabbinovicz, Ma’amar al Hadpasath HaTalmud (1952) pp. 35-43 The title pages of almost all the Tractates contain an interesting poem with an acrostic indicating the owners name with the following message - I know... that not all of the people of the world are trustworthy ... therefore I am afraid of those who desecrate G-d’s name...who wish to rob and plunder all the time... Thus from this day and further ... I inscribe my name as a sign... Elyakim bar Shimshon Yisroel who is known as Zalman. The acrostic of the first verses on the right spell out “Zalman”, the final letters of the four lines of the right column end in the word “El” and the final letters of the four lines of the left column end in the word “Man”. The number of times this poem appears indicates that this was an integral set belonging to one owner. None of the great collections sold at auction over the last fifty years have offered such a large number of these most prized rarest and most desirbale Bomberg Tractates. Indeed, even among the dozens of volumes from the great David Solomon Sassoon’s Library did not contain the Tractates offered here from the Library of the London Beth Din. See Sotheby’s, The Sassoon Collection of Highly Important Hebrew Books, 30th June, 1970, lot 183