Bidspirit auction | BOMBERG TALMUD. Tractate Eruvin. Daniel

BOMBERG TALMUD. Tractate Eruvin. Daniel Bomberg, Venice, 1528. Second Bomberg Edition - Talmud Bavli, Tractate Eruvin. Venice: Daniel Bomberg, 1528. A large and imposing copy of Masechet Eruvin from Daniel Bomberg’s edition of the Babylonian Talmud, printed in Venice in 1528. Bomberg’s first complete Talmud, issued in Venice in 1520–1523, established the page architecture that would become standard in virtually all subsequent editions: the text of the Gemara surrounded by Rashi and Tosafot, with a remarkably durable system of pagination and arrangement. The present volume belongs to Bomberg’s second edition of the Talmud, undertaken only a few years later. This second edition was not merely a resetting of the first. Improvements and corrections were made to the texts of both the Gemara and Rashi, while the scholarly apparatus was also augmented with biblical references, cross-references to parallel Talmudic passages, references within Tosafot, and the Kitzur Piskei ha-Rosh. It thus represents a further stage in the editorial development of the printed Talmud soon after Bomberg's monumental first edition. Eruvin, with its exceptionally complex discussions of spatial boundaries, courtyards, alleyways and Sabbath domains, posed particular challenges to the early printers. Numerous passages require geometrical or architectural diagrams. In this edition, spaces were on occasion left within the printed page for such figures rather than supplied with printed diagrams, an evocative feature of the practical difficulties involved in transferring this unusually visual tractate to print. Provenance : Two ownership inscriptions of Sasson ben Mordecai Barzani, apparently identifiable with the Sasson ben Mordecai Barzani of Mosul known from other Hebrew manuscripts and books of the nineteenth century. A manuscript of the She’iltot later in the celebrated David Solomon Sassoon collection likewise records the ownership of “Sasson ben Mordecai Barzani of Mosul, ” active in the mid-nineteenth century. Other books bearing the name Sasson Barzani are also known. On fol. 2a the owner records his acquisition in a particularly appealing formula: “I purchased it for the service of my Creator, Sasson, son of the honorable R. Mordecai Barzani, S.T..” A further ownership inscription appears on the title page. קניתיה לעבודת קוני ששון בלמה״ר מרדכי ברזאני ס״ט Venice, 1528. Large folio. Later full vellum binding, spine ruled and decorated in gilt, with gilt Hebrew title and “Venezia 1528” at foot. A handsome, broad-margined copy. Binding rather tight in places, producing some rippling toward the gutters. Narrow strips of paper project from the binding at several points, apparently remnants of an earlier binding structure; one such strip near fol. 114 bears small manuscript writing. Some upper corners shorn. Fol. 125 refurbished, with upper corner torn away and several small holes slightly affecting the Rosh. Other minor age and use wear. Reference: Rabinowitz, Ma’amar al Hadpasat ha-Talmud 46; Sassoon, Ohel Dawid 1:123; Benayahu, Hebrew Books Composed in Baghdad 62ff. Provenance : The distinguished library of Mr. Marvin Shick, a prominent scholar, communal figure, and discerning collector whose library reflected a lifetime of dedication to classical Jewish learning and heritage.