Seder Toharoth. With commentary by Moses Maimonides

(MISHNAH)

Daniel Bomberg

Venice

1528

Second edition. Incipits in white letters against black foliated backgrounds

Vinograd, Venice 133; Habermann, Bomberg 121; not in Adams

Maimonides' Commentary to the Mishnah was originally written in Judeo-Arabic. In the thirteenth century, the Jewish community of Rome sent emissaries to Spain to commission a Hebrew translation. They were received by the leader of Spanish Jewry, R. Solomon ben Abraham ibn Adret (Rashb"a) of Barcelona, Catalonia. After explaining that he and his milieu were no longer conversant with the Arabic language, ibn Adret commended the emissaries to the city of Huesca in Aragon, where he was confident they would find capable translators. While we retain the names of the Huescan translators of other orders of the Mishnah (specifically Mo'ed and Nashim), the identity of the translator of Seder Toharoth remains a mystery. See JE, Vol. IX, p. 81. See M.J. Heller, The Printing of the Talmud (1992), who emphasizes the importance of the emendations in Bomberg’s second edition of each Tractate, in analyzing the development of the text of the Talmud