History of the Early Printed Hebrew Book: Printing the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud
This is a guide to the History of the Early Printed Hebrew Book. It was copied with permission from the guide at the University of Pennsylvania, created by Bruce E. Nielsen, and updated for Columbia University by Michelle Margolis
Printing the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud
Because they played such a prominent role in early Hebrew printing, the Bible and the Talmud have been the focus of much scholarly attention and the subject of significant studies on their own. David Stern's The Jewish Bible: A Material History and Printing the Talmud: from Bomberg to Schottenstein are good places to start.
Printing the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud
- Adler, Elkan Nathan, "Les Editions du Talmud de Pesaro," Revue des études juives 89 (1930) 98-103
- Adler, Elkan Nathan, "Eine Talmud-Ausgaber Salonica, 1705-1707," Zeitschrift für Hebräische Bibliographie 3 (1898) 166-167
- Adler, Elkan Nathan, "Talmud Incunables of Spain & Portugal," pp. 1-4 in, Jewish Studies in Memory of George A. Kohut (New York : The Alexander Kohut memorial foundation, 1935) edd. Salo W. Baron and Alexander Marx
- Brener, Ann, “A Poem by Joseph Sarfati in Honor of Daniel Bomberg’s Biblia Rabbinica, Venice 1525,” pp. 263-285 in, Tradition, heterodoxy and religious culture. Judaism and Christianity in the early modern period (Beer-Sheva : Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, c2006) edd. Chanita Goodblatt and Howard Kreisel
- Burnett, Stephen G., “The Strange Career of the Biblia Rabbinica among Christian Hebraists, 1517-1620,” pp. 63-84, Shaping the Bible in the Reformation: Books, Scholars and Readers in the Sixteenth Century (Leiden: Brill, 2012) edd. Matthew McLean and Bruce Gordon
- Cohen, Menahem, “The Consonantal Character of the First Bible Printings: The Editio Princeps of the Entire Bible, Soncino, 1488,” [Hebrew] Annual of Bar-Ilan University Studies in Judaica and the humanities 18/19 (1981) 47-67
- Dubitsky, Yisrael, First International Census of Earliest Printed Editions of [tractates of] the Babylonian Talmud: Prints from Incunables through Bomberg
- Dunkelgrün, Theodor William, “Like a Blind Man Judging Colors: Joseph Athias and Johannes Leusden Defend Their 1667 Hebrew Bible” pp. 79-115 in, Mapping Jewish Amsterdam: The Early Modern Perspective. Dedicated to Yosef Kaplan on the Occasion of his Retirement (= Studia Rosenthaliana 44) edd. Shlomo Berger, Emile G.L.Schrijver and Irene Zwiep (Leuven and Paris: Peeters, 2012)
- Dunkelgrün, Theodor William, The multiplicity of Scripture: The confluence of textual traditions in the making of the Antwerp Polyglot Bible (1568--1573), Chicago: Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Chicago, 2012
- Dunkelgrün,Theodor, “Never printed like this before” : Johannes Leusden, Joseph Athias, and the Hebrew Bible (1659-1667) Amsterdam : Menasseh ben Israel Instituut, 2014
- Feintuch, I. Z., “On the Talmud Yerushalmi, Venice Edition,” [Hebrew] Kiryat Sefer 59 (1984) 268-270
- Friedman, Shamma, “Unrecorded and Misrecorded Talmud Prints,” [Hebrew] Alei Sefer 18 (1996) 5-41
- Ginsburg, Christian David, Introduction to the Massoretico-critical edition of the Hebrew Bible, London : Trinitarian Bible Society, 1897
- Ginsburg, Christian David, Jacob Ben Chajim Ibn Adonijah’s Introduction to the Rabbinic Bible, London : Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1867; repr. New York: KATV, 1968
- Heller, Marvin J., “The Bath-Sheba / Moses de Medina Salonika Edition of Berakhot: An Unknown Attempt to Circumvent the Inquisition's Ban on the Printing of the Talmud in Sixteenth Century Italy,” Jewish Quarterly Review 87 (1996) 47-60
- Heller, Marvin J., Printing the Talmud : a history of the earliest printed editions of the Talmud, Brooklyn, N.Y.: Im Hasefer, c1992
- Heller, Marvin J., Printing the Talmud : a history of the individual treatises printed from 1700 to 1750, Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 1999
- Heller, Marvin J., “Designing the Talmud: the origins of the printed Talmudic page,” pp. pp. 92-105 in, Studies in the Making of the Early Hebrew Book (Leiden: Brill, 2008)
- Hill, Brad Sabin, “The Sion College Talmud,” pp. 92-93 in, Lambeth Palace Library: Treasures from the Collection of the Archbishops of Canterbury (London : Scala Publishers Limited, 2010) edd. Richard Palmer and Michelle P. Brown
- Kahle, Paul, “Felix Pratensis – à Prato, Felix, Der Herausgeber der ersten Rabbinerbibel, Venedig 1516-17,” Die Welt des Orients 1 (1947) 32-36
- Maciejko, Pawel, "The Rabbi and the Jesuit: On Rabbi Jonathan Eibeschütz and Father Franciscus Haselbauer Editing the Talmud," Jewish Social Studies 20.2 (2014) 147-185
- Marzo Magno, Alessandro, "The First Talmud," pp. 61-77 in, Bound in Venice: The Serene Republic and the Dawn of the Book (New York, NY : Europa Editions, 2013)
- Me'ir, Yakov Z., Defus rishon : mahadurat ha-Talmud ha-Yerushalmi Ṿenitsiyah 283 1523 ṿe-reshit ha-defus ha-ʻIvri = Edition princeps : the 1523 Venice edition of the Palestinian Talmud and the beginning of Hebrew printing (Jerusalem: Magnes, 2022)
- Me'ir Yakov Z., "The Bookless Talmud and the Talmud Book: The Loss of Books in the Medieval and the Early Modern World," in Premodern Jewish Books, their Makers and Readers in an Era of Media Change, eds. Katrin Kogman-Appel and Ilona Steimann (Turnhout: Brepols, 2024)
- Mintz, Sharon Liberman and Gabriel M. Goldstein, edd., Printing the Talmud : from Bomberg to Schottenstein, New York: Yeshiva University Museum, 2005
- Mishmor, Mordechai, “An Impress from the Venice Edition in the Leiden Ms. of Talmud Yerushalmi,” [Hebrew] Kiryat Sefer 53 (1978) 578
- Offenberg, Adri K., "Hebrew Printing of the Bible in the XVth Century," pp. 71-77 in, The Bible as Book: The first printed editions (New Castle, DE : Oak Knoll Press, 1999) edd. Paul H. Saenger and Kimberly van Campen
- Pallman, Heinrich, "Ambrosius Froben von Basel als Drucker des Talmud," Archiv für Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels 7 (1882) 44-61
- Penkower, Jordan, יעקב בן חיים וצמיחת מהדורת המקראות הגדולות = Jacob ben Hayyim and the rise of the Biblia Rabbinica, PhD. Dissertation. Jerusalem : Hebrew University, 1982
- Penkower, Jordan S., “Bomberg’s First Bible Edition and the Beginning of his Printing Press,” [Hebrew] Kiryat Sefer 58 (1983) 586-604
- Penkower, Jordan S., “The Chapter Divisions in the 1525 Rabbinic Bible,” Vetus Testamentum 48 (1998) 350-374
- Penkower, Jordan S., “The End of Rashi’s Commentary on Job: The Manuscripts and the Printed Editions (with three appendices),” Jewish Studies Quarterly 10 (2003) 18-48
- Penkower, Jordan, “The French and German Glosses (Le'azim) in the Pseudo-Rashi Commentary on Chronicles (12th century Narbonne): The Manuscripts and the Printed Editions,” Jewish Studies Quarterly 16 (2009) 255-305
- Pilarczyk, Krzysztof, “Spory o druk Talmudu w Pierwszej Rzeczypospolitej : z dziejów cenzury w XVI i XVII wieku,” [Disputes about the printing of the Talmud in the First Republic : the history of censorship in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries] pp. 45-61 in, Zydzi i judaizm we wspólczesnych badaniach polskich, T. 2: Materialy konferencyjne, Kraków 24-26 XI 1998 (Krako´w : Polska Akademia Umieje?tnos´ci, Komisja Historii i Kultury Z?ydo´w, 2000) edd. K. Pilarczyka and S. Gasiorowskiego, Kraków
- Pilarczyk, Krzysztof, “Zur Zensurfrage des Talmud in Polen im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert,” Studia Judaica 2 (1999) 185-195
- Pilarczyk, Krzysztof, Talmud i jego drukarze w Pierwszej Rzeczypospolitej : z dziejów przekazu religijnego w judaizmie [Talmud and its printers in the First Republic : the history of the transmission of religious Judaism], Krako´w : Nakladem Polskiej Akademii Umieje?tnos´ci, 1998
- Pilarczyk, Krzysztof, “Printing the Talmud in Poland in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” Polin 15 (2001) 59-64
- Prijs, Bernhard and Hermann Süss, “Neues vom Basler Talmuddruck,” Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichter und Altertumskunde 82 (1982) 205-212
- Prijs, Joseph, Der Basler Talmuddruck 1578-1580: der Universität Basel zur Fünfhundertjahrfeier überreicht, Olten : Urs Graf-Verlag, 1960
- Rabbinowicz, Raphael Nathan Nata, מאמר על הדפסת התלמוד : תולדות הדפסת התלמוד = History of the Printing of the Talmud, ed. Abraham Meir Haberman, Jerusalem : Mosad ha-Rav Kuk, 712 [1951 or 1952; 1965]
- Rosenfeld, Moshe Nathan, "Der Fürther Talmuddruck: Geschichte und Bibliographie," Nachrichten für den jüdischen Bürger Fürths (1993) 29-37
- Rosenthal, Abraham, “Daniel Bomberg and his Talmud Editions,” pp. 375-416 in, Gli Ebrei e Venezia: secoli XIV-XVIII (Milan: Edizioni Comunità, 1987) ed. Gaetano Cozzi
- Rypins, Stanley, “The Ferrara Bible at Press,” The Library 5. ser. 10 (1955) 244-269, cf. The Library 5. ser. 13 (1958) 128 “The Ferrara Bible: An Addition to the Census”
- Samuel, Edgar, “The Provenance of the Westminster Talmud,” Transactions & Miscellanies. Jewish Historical Society of England 27 (1982) 148-150
- Schenker, Adrian, “Early Printings of the Hebrew Bible,” pp. 276-86 in, Hebrew Bible / Old Testament, vol. 2 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2008) ed. Magne Sabo
- Schwab, Moïse, “Une Editione Rarissime du Talmud,” Revue des études juives 63 (1912) 300-303
- Schwarzbach, Bertram Eugene, “Les éditions de la Bible hébraique au XVIe siècle et la créatin du texte massorétique,” pp. 16-67 in, La Bible imprimée dans l’Europe moderne (Paris: Bibliothe`que nationale de France, 1999) ed. Bertram Eugene Schwarzbach
- Seeligmann, Sigmund, "Ein Portugiesischer Talmuddruck," Zeitschrift für hebräische Bibliographie 12 (1908) 16–19
- Spiegel, Jacob, “The tractate Hagigah: Citations from a Spanish printing before the expulsion,” [Hebrew] Kiryat Sefer 57 (1982) 725-26
- Staehelin, Ernst, "Des Basler Buchdruckers Ambrosius Froben Talmudausgabe und Handel mit Rom," Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde 30 (1931)
- Stern, David, “The Rabbinic Bible in Its Sixteenth-Century Context,” pp. 76 -108 and 252-68 in, The Hebrew Book in Early Modern Italy (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011) edd. Joseph R. Hacker and Adam Shear
- Tamani, Giuliano, “Le Prime Edizioni Della Bibbia Hebraica,” pp. 259-74 in, Bibel in jüdischer und christlicher Tradition : Festschrift fu¨r Johann Maier zum 60. Geburtstag (Frankfurt a. M.: Anton Hain, 1993) edd. Helmut Merklein, Karlheinz Mu¨ller and Gu¨nter Stemberger
- Travier, Didier, “Un rare Talmud du XVIe siècle,” Vincentiana, le Bulletin des Amis de l’Abbaye Saint-Vincent 4 (2008) 3-10
- Zafren, Herbert C., “Bible Editions, Bible Study and the Early History of Hebrew Printing,” Eretz-Israel 16 (1982) *241-*251