Anonymous. Masoreth HaTalmud [index to the Talmud and Mishnah]

AUCTION 25 | Monday, October 25th, 2004 at 1:00
Important Hebrew Printed Books: The Property of a Gentleman

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Lot 53
(TALMUD)

Anonymous. Masoreth HaTalmud [index to the Talmud and Mishnah]

FIRST EDITION ff. 54. Final few leaves lightly soiled, small hole in title, marginal dampstaining. Modern boards. Sm. folio Vinograd, Salonika 32

Salonika: Don Yehuda Gedaliah 1523

Est: $20,000 - $25,000
PRICE REALIZED $20,000
One of the essential components of the Talmud is the Masoreth HaShas - parallel readiings, printed alongside the margins of every page of the Talmud. This feature was first added to the Talmud for by R. Joshua Boaz for the Justinian, Venetian edition of 1546 (and on). It was later enhanced for the Frankfurt edition by R. Joseph Samuel of Frankfurt and again by R. Isaiah (Pick) Berlin. This standard feature was not available in the earlier editions of Soncino, Pesaro and even the famous Bomberg edition. The Masorath HaShas (or here, the Masorath HaTalmud) was arranged by an unknown scholar in Salonika who compiled an early, rather unsophisticated set of parallel passages for twenty-nine of the major Talmudic tractates - probably as an addendum to the Talmud published in Salonika by the printer Don Yehuda Gedaliah The notes appear here in a slightly different order than that expected. It commences with Tractate Sabbath, while Berachoth and Chulin follow Moed Katan. Here, the text cites just the pertinent chapter of the parallel reading; present versions also cite the exact page number