SEPHER RABBOTH

(MIDRASH)

Daniel Bomberg

Venice

1545

FIRST EDITION. Title within woodcut architectural border

Vinograd, Venice 241; Habermann Bomberg 176; not in Adams; see also Habermann, Adelkind 22

The Midrash Rabboth are the most important of the Agadic collections. It was denominated Large (‘Rabba”) on account of its sheer quantity and to distinguish it from smaller collections on the Biblical books. The systemization and organization of this mass of Agadic matter accumulated into this collection lasted several centuries, indeed one of these midrashim was compiled as late as the 12th-century. Two simultaneous editions appeared in 1545, one printed by the House of Bomberg and one by Cornelius Adelkind for the House of Gustiniani. Regarding the bibliographical and typographical issue-points in these two editions see: A. Marx, Bibliographical Studies and Notes (1977) p. 374. Although both copies contain the closing "al yedei Cornelio Adelkind”, the present copy contains the poem by Eliahu Bahur on the final leaf as per Habermann, Bomberg p. 79, no. 176