Editions of the Babli

Editions of the Babli.

The first complete edition of the Babylonian Talmud () was printed at Venice, 1520-23, by Daniel Bomberg, and has become the basis, down to the present day, of a very large number of editions, including that of Basel, 1578-81, which, with the changes and omissions made by the censor, exerted a powerful influence on later texts until the edition of Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1720-22, with its additions, became the model of all subsequent editions of the Talmud (see below). The external form of Babli was determined by the editio princeps. While the first edition of Yerushalmi, in its two columns on each folio page, contains only the text, the editio princeps of Babli adds the commentary of Rashi on one margin and the tosafot on the other, together with kindred matter. Especially noteworthy is the fact that the first edition of Babli has a pagination which has been retained in all subsequent editions, thus rendering it possible to quote passages with exactness, and to find citations readily. The mishnaic treatises which have no Babylonian Talmud are included in the editions of the Talmud, together with commentaries, and these same tractates are likewise found in the only complete manuscript of Babli (that at Munich), where they form an appendix, although they precede the post-Talmudic treatises, which are likewise contained in the editions. It has been noted above that the editions of Babli contain the Yerushalmi for the treatiseSheKalim; and this is also the case in the Munich manuscript.

The following list gives the names of the treatises of Babli which have been preserved, together with the sequence generally followed in the editions, and the number of folios in each tractate, the pagination always beginning with fol. 2. Of the 570 leaves of the Munich codex, containing about eighty lines to a page, 490 belong to Babli; this gives an approximate idea of the size of this Talmud. The amount of text on each page of the editions, however, varies greatly on account of the varying length of the commentary of Rashi and the tosafot which accompany it; but the number of leaves shows the comparative lengths of the several treatises.

I. Zera'im:

• Berakot (64).

II. Mo'ed:

• Shabbat (157);
• 'Erubin (105);
• Pesahim (121);
• Bezah (40);
• hagigah (27);
• Mo'ed Katan (29);
• Rosh ha-Shanah (35);
• Yoma (88);
• Sukkah (56);
• Ta'anit (31);
• Megillah (32).

III. Nashim:

• Yebamot (122);
• Ketubot (112);
• Kiddushin (82);
• Gittin (90);
• Nedarim (91);
• Nazir (66);
• Sotah (49).

IV. NeziKin:

• Baba Kamma (119);
• Baba Mezi'a (119);
• Baba Batra (176);
• 'Abodah Zarah (76);
• Sanhedrin (113)
• Shebu'ot (49);
• Makkot (24);
• Horayot (14).

V. Kodashim:

• Zebahim (120);
• Menahot (110);
• Bekorot (161);
• hullin (142);
• 'Arakin (34);
• Temurah (34);
• Keritot (28);
• Me'ilah (22);
• Tamid (9).

VI. tohorot: Niddah (73).