Babylonian Talmud, Tractate 'Eduyyot Printed on Blue Paper, Venice: Daniel Bomberg, 1521

Folio (12¾ x 8½ in.; 324 x 215 mm). collation: 1^{8, 210=18 leaves, woodcut initial; dampstain in fore-margin which is mended on title. Half buckram.}

Moses Gaster—his signature stamped on verso of title page

Vinograd, Venice 48; Haberman 43. Neither records the commentary of Rabad; Steinschneider, 1638

Folio (12¾ x 8½ in.; 324 x 215 mm). collation: 18, 210=18 leaves, woodcut initial; dampstain in fore-margin which is mended on title. Half buckram.
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Unlike other tractates, which usually deal with a particular subject, 'Eduyyot (Testimonies), is a collection of a laws on a wide variety of topics.  Its title reflects the purpose of the collection: to put on record the "testimonies" given by later sages on the halakhic pronouncements and controversies of earlier authorities. Thus, the phrase "rabbi so-and-so testified" (he'id) frequently occurs, especially in the later chapters. The fact that the correctness of the respective halakhic traditions were established before a court and consequently designated as "testimonies," may also explain why this tractate was included in the order Nezikin, which to a large extent treats of law and procedure.

Included in this copy are the exceedingly scarce, separately signed, nine folios containing the commentary of Rabbi Abraham ben David of Posqueires (Rabad), not recorded by Habermann or Vinograd. The British Library and Westminster Abbey copies are known to be complete. (See David Goldstein, "Hebrew Printed Books in the Library of Westminster Abbey" in Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England, XXVII (London:1982), p. 154 n.7.)