Tosafoth to Babylonian Tractate Chulin.

<<SCARCE EARLY MANUSCRIPT OF TOSAFOTH TO CHULIN.>> All Tosafoth manuscripts are exceedingly rare. Extant are only five manuscripts of Tosafoth to Chulin, of which only one is complete, the others are fragments. The present manuscript contains Tosafoth that corresponds to Chilun ff. 11b-67b and ff. 89b-102b (as per the Vilna foliation). Compared to the standard edition, the manuscript contains a great many variants. Some are simply stylistic, others however contain readings that are substantially different from the printed version. The scribe alludes to his name in several places as “Yedidyah” (see ff. 23v, 30v, 57r) who is otherwise unknown. The Manuscript is numbered in a later hand, 8-59 (hence the first 7 leaves lacking). Several marginal notations, some extensive, appear throughout from later periods (15th-16th centuries). In some cases the notes on the side serve to fill in a word missed by the copyist, while in other places the glosses present a question or a dissenting view other than Tosafoth. Several additions (“gilyonoth”) are cited as well. The order of the chapters is different than the order found in the published text. Here chapter seven follows immediately after chapter three on the same page (f. 48v). It cannot be deduced that there was another order to the chapters of Chulin, perhaps this copyist lacked a complete Tractate? See Epstein, Mavo L’Nusach Hamishnah, Vol. 2, p. 988. A comprehensive study of Tosafoth to Chulin has yet to be be undertaken. The present manuscript would immensely add to scholarship, seeking to understand the intricacies contained within this popular, though demanding Tractate. <<Provenance:>> Sotheby’s, Judaica, 13th December, 2006, Lot 172.