MOSES BEN MAIMON.

A RARE COMPLETE COPY OF THE FIRST BRAGADIN EDITION OF MAIMONIDES' CODE. Within twelve months, two Venetian printing establishments, the veteran House of Giustinian and the neophyte Bragadin, issued in 1550, rival editions of the Mishneh Torah. The ensuing commercial rivalry resulted in a level of contention that ultimately led to Church-sanctioned public burning of Hebrew books. Upon establishing a new printing-shop, Alvise Bragadin, commissioned the Mahara"m, Meir Katzenellenbogen, Chief Rabbi of Padua, to serve as Chief Editor of a new edition of the Mishneh Torah. R. Meir not only edited the work, but included his own glosses “Amar Ha-Magiha.” The Giustiniani rival edition of Maimonides wrote disparagingly of the Mahra”m's contributions and Bragadin subsequently accused Giustiniani of publishing a second Maimonides with the malicious intent of sabotaging a new Hebrew press, just as he (Giustiniani) had previously ruined Bomberg. As the dispute escalated, Rabbi Meir Katznellenbogen wrote to his disciple Rabbi Moses Isserles (Ram"a) in Cracow reporting the dispute and requesting a judicial opinion. The Ram"a subsequently enjoined all Jews, under pain of excommunication (cherem,) from purchasing the books of Giustiniani (see his responsa no. 10). In retaliation, Giustiniani sought to obtain a papal opinion condemning Bragadin's books. He directed the scrutiny of the papal censor to Rabbi Meir’s notes on Maimonides for content objectionable to the Church. This dispute between the Houses of Bragadin and Giustinian ultimately resulted in the ecclesiastically-ordered cessation of Hebrew printing, and subsequently Hebrew books were confiscated by the authorities to be consumed by flames at public burnings in market-places throughout Italy. For details of this tragedy see Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy, pp. 255- 64, A. Yaari, Sereiphath Hatalmud B’Italia in: Mechkarei Sepher (1958) pp. 198-233, and Isaiah Sonne, Tiyulim...A. Marx Jubilee Volume, p. 215. Due to the Halachic ruling by Moses Isserles, scholars were wont to study exclusively from the Bragadin Maimonides edition and thus few are still extant as opposed to the large number of Giustiani Maimonides editions that lay unpurchased The introduction of the editor in Volume I explicitly states that the Sepher Ha’mitzvoth was published together with the Mishnah Torah so that it would be an immediate study-aid. According to Dienstag (p. 35), the copies located in JTSA, NYPL, and HUC do not have the Sepher Ha’mitzvoth bound together with the Mishnah Torah