TRACTATE EDUYYOT, VENICE: DANIEL BOMBERG, 1521

17 folios (13 1/2 x 9 1/8 in.; 341 x 230 mm) (collation: i8, i9) on paper. Each section begins with the letters of the name Shammai set against a foliate background; pen trial on f. 5r of Ra’avad section; tapering text on f. 9v of Ra’avad section. Slight scattered staining; Maimonides and Ra’avad sections derive from disparate exemplars, as evidenced by the damage patterns. Maimonides section: spotting on title; gutters strengthened; minor worming mostly affecting individual letters. Ra’avad section: small tear radiating upward from gutter near head repaired; individual wormhole at foot repaired; slight damage in corners and in outer edges repaired; more significant damage affecting a few letters on f. 9 repaired. Modern calf paneled in blind, very slightly scuffed; title, place, and date lettered in gilt on spine; modern paper flyleaves and pastedowns.

Eduyyot (Testimonies), the seventh tractate in the order Nezikin, is an eight-chapter-long collection of laws on a wide variety of topics. Its title reflects the purpose of the treatise: to put on record the “testimonies” given by later sages on the legal pronouncements and controversies of earlier authorities. Thus, the phrase “Rabbi So-and-So testified [he‘id]” occurs frequently in the later chapters. The fact that the reliability of these traditions was established before a court may explain why this tractate was included in Nezikin and why its teachings were accorded special authority in the Talmud (see, e.g., Berakhot 27a, Kiddushin 54b, and Bekhorot 26a, where Eduyyot is referred to by the name Behirata [Choice (Teachings)]). The text printed here is that of the Mishnah alone – there is no Talmud on Eduyyot – accompanied by the commentaries of Maimonides in a single quire of eight leaves and of Rabbi Abraham ben David of Posquières (Ra’avad; ca. 1125-1198) in another quire of nine leaves. Literature

A.M. Habermann, Ha-madpis daniyyel bombirgi u-reshimat sifrei beit defuso (Safed: The Museum of Printing Art, 1978), 35 (no. 43).

Vinograd, Venice 48