Babylonian Talmud, Venice: Daniel Bomberg Tractate Yevamot Printed on Blue Paper, 1522 Tractate Gittin Printed on Blue Paper, 1521

Folio (14¼ x 9½ in.; 362 x 242 mm). collation: (Yevamot)1-15^{8, 1610; 18, 26, 34=148 leaves; (Gittin) 1-138, 14-156=116 leaves; title detached and creased with fore-margin mended, marginal mend in second leaf, some dampstains and light worming in first few leaves, and elsewhere, last leaf detached. Seventeenth-century calf, blind-tooled in a panel design; worn, covers detached, scuffed and torn.}

Moses Gaster—his stamped signature on verso of both title pages

Vinograd, Venice 57, 40; Habermann  50, 37

Folio (14¼ x 9½ in.; 362 x 242 mm). collation: (Yevamot)1-158, 1610; 18, 26, 34=148 leaves; (Gittin) 1-138, 146=110 leaves; title detached and creased with fore-margin mended, marginal mend in second leaf, some dampstains and light worming in first few leaves, and elsewhere, last leaf detached. Seventeenth-century calf, blind-tooled in a panel design; worn, covers detached, scuffed and torn.
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Tractate Yevamot:

Due to its length of 16 chapters, tractate Yevamot (Levirate Marriages), is placed first within the order Nashim, and is even referred to as Nashim in certain manuscripts. This alternate title may be partly warranted by the great variety of laws it contains pertaining to women, far beyond those of levirate marriage with which it primarily deals. The themes dealt with in tractate Yevamot are considered to be among the most difficult of the Talmud. One important and difficult topic is the question of the status of an agunah (lit. a chained woman), a married woman who is either unable to obtain a divorce or prove the death of her husband. The tractate also discusses questions concerning proselytization and the indispensability of circumcision and ritual bathing as part of its rite.

N.B. Both Vinograd and Habermann, mistakenly call for 150 leaves (130 leaves in the first numbered section of the book and 20 leaves in the second numbered section. As is true of several tractates in this edition where the last quire is smaller than the other quires in the tractate, the leaves of the final quire are misnumbered (here, this occurs in quire three of the second section.) This final quire of four leaves skips the folio numbers 15-16 and numbers the last four leaves as 20, 17, 20, 20. The correct number of leaves in this section is actually 18--not 20 as called for by Vinograd and Habermann. In that regard, the correct number of leaves is 148. A very few copies also include an additional, separately signed, unnumbered bifolio comprising the introduction of Jacob ben Moses ibn Abbasi and Joseph al-Fawwal (translators) to Maimonides commentary on Seder Nashim.

BOUND WITH:

Tractate Gittin:

Although it would perhaps seem intuitive to place Gittin (divorces), after Kiddushin within the internal organization of the order Nashim, due to the custom of arranging the tractates in the order of their length, Gittin, containing nine chapters precedes Kiddushin which boasts only four. The entire tractate deals with bills of divorce, with few digressions on other topics.  There are however several interesting discussions of halakhot enacted for the "general welfare" or in the "interests of peace." From the tractate it is possible to prove that there existed a kind of official recognition by the government of Jewish civil jurisdiction and that government sanctions were invoked to execute the decisions of the Jewish courts.

N.B. Here too, Vinograd and Habermann mistakenly call for 118 leaves for tractate Gittin. The confusion arises from the misnumbering (in type) of the 15th (final) quire of six leaves which skips the numbers 111-112 and begins with 113.  The correct number of leaves is 116 as called for by the table of quires on the final leaf.