BABYLONIAN TALMUD, TRACTATE SHEVU'OT, VENICE: DANIEL BOMBERG, 1526

61 folios (13 1/4 x 9 3/8 in.; 337 x 238 mm) (collation: i-vii8, viii5) on paper. Manuscript notes/references on ff. 2r-3r, 19r-22r, 23r; censorship of the word talmud or talmuda on ff. 4v, 5v, 9v, 11v, 25r-v, 26v, 41r-v, 44r and of romi on f. 6v; marginal notations by censor of occurrences of the words avodah zarah and goyim; some Tosafot comments numbered by censor; pen trials on ff. 17r-18r, 49v; owner’s mark cut off on f. 23v; Arabic writing on f. 61r-v. Slight scattered staining; a couple marginal wormholes repaired; ff. 17-24 supplied and featuring somewhat more staining and wear than the rest of the volume with damage in outer corners and gutter repaired; tape repairs on f. 21r; slight worming on ff. 25-48 repaired and affecting only individual letters; ff. 49-61 supplied, with damage in upper-outer corners and in outer margins repaired; f. 49 loose and slightly creased. Modern brown leather paneled in blind; spine in six compartments with raised bands; title and place of printing lettered in gilt on spine; brown-speckled edges; modern marbled paper flyleaves and pastedowns; numerous blank pages of acid-free paper at rear.

Shevu‘ot (Oaths), the sixth tractate in the order Nezikin, deals, in eight chapters, with various types of oaths – swearing to perform or to not perform a given act, oaths taken in vain, oaths relating to bailments, oaths imposed by the court (hence, the Nezikin connection), etc. – as well as certain aspects of ritual impurity. In grouping these seemingly distinct areas of Jewish law together, Shevu‘ot follows the precedent set by the Torah itself in Lev. 5:1-4. In addition to the legal discussions, the treatise includes a fair amount of interesting aggadic material. Provenance

Abraham Mizrahi (f. 23r)

Bar-Ilan University Library (f. 61r)

David Ashkenazi (f. 61v)

Hayyim Ashkenazi (f. 61v)

Literature

A.M. Habermann, Ha-madpis daniyyel bombirgi u-reshimat sifrei beit defuso (Safed: The Museum of Printing Art, 1978), 61 (no. 108).

Vinograd, Venice 111