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 Chesner

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.  Ginsburg’s works on the Bible and Heller’s general works on printing of the Talmud are excellent places to begin.

Printing the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud

Adler, Elkan Nathan
"Les Editions du Talmud de Pesaro," Revue des études juives 89 (1930) 98-103
Library at the Katz Center - Periodicals Gallery. DS101 .R45
Van Pelt Library. DS101 .R45

Adler, Elkan Nathan
"Eine Talmud-Ausgaber Salonica, 1705-1707," Zeitschrift für Hebräische Bibliographie 3 (1898) 166-167
Katz Center - Reference Room. Z6367 .Z48
Katz Center - Stacks. Z6367 .Z48
Available via HathiTrust Digital Library.  http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c042576812

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
Katz Center - Stacks. BM42.K648 B376 1935

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
Van Pelt Library. BM535 .T72 2006
http://hsf.bgu.ac.il/cjt/files/library%20files/tradition/Ann%20Brener.pdf

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
Rare Book & Manuscript Library - Furness Shakespeare Library (Van Pelt 628). BS445 .S37 2012
Van Pelt Library. BS445 .S37 2012

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
Katz Center - Periodicals Gallery. BM1 .B35
Van Pelt Library. BM1 B35

Dubitsky, Yisrael
First International Census of Earliest Printed Editions of [tractates of] the Babylonian Talmud:  Prints from Incunables through Bomberg
https://www.lieberman-institute.com/resources/Dubitsky.html

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)
Katz Center - Stacks. DS135.N4 S8
Van Pelt Library. DS135.N4 S8

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
http://search.proquest.com/docview/1040725740

Dunkelgrün,Theodor
“Never printed like this before” : Johannes Leusden, Joseph Athias, and the Hebrew Bible (1659-1667)
Amsterdam : Menasseh ben Israel Instituut, 2014
Van Pelt Library. Z232.A776 D86 2014

Feintuch, I. Z.
“On the Talmud Yerushalmi, Venice Edition,” [Hebrew] Kiryat Sefer 59 (1984) 268-270
Katz Center - Periodicals Gallery. Z6367 .K57
Van Pelt Library. Z6367 .K57

Friedman, Shamma
“Unrecorded and Misrecorded Talmud Prints,” [Hebrew] Alei Sefer 18 (1996) 5-41
Katz Center - Periodicals Gallery. Z228.H4 A57
Van Pelt Library. Z228.H4 A57
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/24158806.pdf

Ginsburg, Christian David
Introduction to the Massoretico-critical edition of the Hebrew Bible
London : Trinitarian Bible Society, 1897
Katz Center - Reference Room. BS718.M37 G5 1966; repr. New York:  KTAV, 1966
Katz Center - Margolis Collection. BS1140.I58 G5 1897
Van Pelt Library. BS718 .G5
Available via HathiTrust Digital Library.  http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101063612095;view=1up;seq=12

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
Katz Center - Reference Room. BS718.M37 J313 1968
Katz Center - Stacks. BS718 .J3213 1867
Van Pelt - Judaica/Ancient Near East Resource Room (401). BS718 .J313
Available via HathiTrust Digital Library. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/7489373.html

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
Katz Center - Periodicals Gallery.  DS101 .J48
Research Annex (LIBRA). DS101 .J48

Heller, Marvin J.
Printing the Talmud : a history of the earliest printed editions of the Talmud
Brooklyn, N.Y.: Im Hasefer, c1992
Katz Center - Reference Room. BM501 .H44 1992
Rare Book & Manuscript Library - Reference Collection. Z251.H4 H444 1992

Heller, Marvin J.
Printing the Talmud : a history of the individual treatises printed from 1700 to 1750
Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 1999
Katz Center - Stacks. Z6371.T2 H46 1999
Van Pelt Library. Z6371.T2 H46 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)
Katz Center - Stacks. Z228.H4 H46 2008
Van Pelt Library. Z228.H4 H46 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
Van Pelt - Yarnall Collection. Z664.L363 L363 2010

Kahle, Paul
“Felix Pratensis – à Prato, Felix, Der Herausgeber der ersten Rabbinerbibel, Venedig 1516-17,” Die Welt des Orients 1 (1947)  32-36
Katz Center - Periodicals B1. PJ10 .W45
Van Pelt - Judaica/Ancient Near East Resource Room (401). PJ10 .W45
http://www.jstor.org/stable/23470422?pq-origsite=summon&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

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
Katz Center - Periodicals B1. DS101 .J555
Van Pelt Library DS101 .J555
https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jewish_social_studies/v020/20.2.maciejko.pdf

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)
Van Pelt Library. Z156.V4 M3713 2013

Mintz, Sharon Liberman and Gabriel M. Goldstein, edd.
Printing the Talmud : from Bomberg to Schottenstein
New York: Yeshiva University Museum, 2005
Katz Center - Reference Folio. BM501 .P756 2005
Van Pelt Library. BM501 .P756 2005

Mishmor, Mordechai
“An Impress from the Venice Edition in the Leiden Ms. of Talmud Yerushalmi,” [Hebrew] Kiryat Sefer 53 (1978) 578
Katz Center - Periodicals Gallery. Z6367 .K57
Van Pelt Library. Z6367 .K57

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
Katz Center - Stacks. BS447.5.E85 B53 1999
Van Pelt Library. BS447.5.E85 B53 1999

Pallman, Heinrich
"Ambrosius Froben von Basel als Drucker des Talmud," Archiv für Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels 7 (1882) 44-61
Available via HathiTrust Digital Library. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924106306362;view=1up;seq=56

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
Katz Center – Stacks. BS718 .P45 1982, v.1-2
Van Pelt Library.  BS718 .P45 1982

Penkower, Jordan S.
“Bomberg’s First Bible Edition and the Beginning of his Printing Press,” [Hebrew] Kiryat Sefer 58 (1983) 586-604
Katz Center - Periodicals Gallery. Z6367 .K57
Van Pelt Library. Z6367 .K57

Penkower, Jordan S.
“The Chapter Divisions in the 1525 Rabbinic Bible,” Vetus Testamentum 48 (1998) 350-374
Katz Center - Periodicals Gallery. BS410 .V45
Van Pelt - Judaica/Ancient Near East Resource Room (401). BS410 .V45

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
Katz Center - Periodicals Gallery. BM70 .J485
Van Pelt Library. BM70 .J485

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
Katz Center - Periodicals Gallery. BM70 .J485
Van Pelt Library. BM70 .J485
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/40753492.pdf?acceptTC=true

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   
Available via BorrowDirect from Harvard University, Columbia University et al.

Pilarczyk, Krzysztof
“Zur Zensurfrage des Talmud in Polen im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert,” Studia Judaica 2 (1999) 185-195
Katz Center – Stacks. DS135.P6 S795

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
Available UPenn Law Library.

Pilarczyk, Krzysztof
“Printing the Talmud in Poland in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” Polin 15 (2001) 59-64
Katz Center – Stacks. DS135.P6 P56
Van Pelt Library. DS135.P6 P56

Prijs, Bernhard and Hermann Süss
“Neues vom Basler Talmuddruck,” Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichter und Altertumskunde 82 (1982) 205-212
Van Pelt Library. DQ361 .H44
Research Annex (LIBRA).  DQ361 .H44
http://www.e-periodica.ch/digbib/view?pid=bzg-002:1982:82#208

Prijs, Joseph
Der Basler Talmuddruck 1578-1580: der Universität Basel zur Fünfhundertjahrfeier überreicht
Olten : Urs Graf-Verlag, 1960
Available via BorrowDirect from Harvard University and University of Chicago

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]  
Katz Center - Reference Room. BM501 .R335 1965
Katz Center - Stacks. BM501 .R335 1965
Katz Center - Special. BM501 .R335 1951
Van Pelt Library. BM501 .R335 1951

Rosenfeld, Moshe Nathan
"Der Fürther Talmuddruck: Geschichte und Bibliographie," Nachrichten für den jüdischen Bürger Fürths (1993) 29-37
Available as a scan from Yale University, Harvard University et al.

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
Katz Center - Stacks. DS135.I85 V4234 1987
Van Pelt Library. DS135.I8 E28 1983

Rypins, Stanley
“The Ferrara Bible at Press,” The Library 5. ser. 10 (1955) 244-269
Van Pelt Library.  Z671 .L69
http://library.oxfordjournals.org/content/s5-X/4/244.full.pdf+html
cf. The Library 5. ser. 13 (1958) 128 “The Ferrara Bible:  An Addition to the Census”
http://library.oxfordjournals.org/content/s5-XIII/2/128.full.pdf+html

Samuel, Edgar
“The Provenance of the Westminster Talmud,” Transactions & Miscellanies.  Jewish Historical Society of England 27 (1982) 148-150
http://www.jstor.org/stable/29778903?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

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
Katz Center - Reference Room. BS1160 .H44 1996
Van Pelt Library. BS1160 .H445 1996
Van Pelt - Judaica/Ancient Near East Resource Room (401). BS1160 .H445 1996

Schwab, Moïse
“Une Editione Rarissime du Talmud,” Revue des études juives 63 (1912) 300-303
Katz Center - Periodicals Gallery. DS101 .R45
Van Pelt Library. DS101 .R45
Available via HathiTrust Digital Library.  https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951001360937p;view=1up;seq=319

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
Van Pelt Library. BS450 .B495 1999

Seeligmann, Sigmund
"Ein Portugiesischer Talmuddruck," Zeitschrift für hebräische Bibliographie 12 (1908) 16–19
Katz Center – Reference Room. Z6367 .Z48
Katz Center – Stacks. Z6367 .Z48
Available via HathiTrust Digital Library. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.l0062134788;view=1up;seq=30;size=125

Spiegel, Jacob
“The tractate Hagigah:  Citations from a Spanish printing before the expulsion,” [Hebrew] Kiryat Sefer 57 (1982) 725-26
Katz Center - Periodicals Gallery. Z6367 .K57
Van Pelt Library. Z6367 .K57

Staehelin, Ernst
"Des Basler Buchdruckers Ambrosius Froben Talmudausgabe und Handel mit Rom," Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde 30 (1931)
Van Pelt Library. DQ361 .H44
http://www.e-periodica.ch/digbib/view?pid=bzg-002:1931:30::13

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
Katz Center - Stacks. Z228.H4 H425 2011
Van Pelt Library. Z228.H4 H425 2011
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/upenn/docDetail.action?docID=10642680
http://muse.jhu.edu/books/9780812205091

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
Van Pelt Library. BS1160 .B524 1993

Travier, Didier
“Un rare Talmud du XVIe siècle,” Vincentiana, le Bulletin des Amis de l’Abbaye Saint-Vincent 4 (2008) 3-10
Available via InterLibrary Loan electronic document delivery

Zafren, Herbert C.
“Bible Editions, Bible Study and the Early History of Hebrew Printing,” Eretz-Israel 16 (1982) *241-*251
Katz Center - Reference Room. DS111.A2 E7
Katz Center – Stacks. DS111.A2 E7
Van Pelt - Judaica/Ancient Near East Resource Room (401). DS111.A2 E7