"Printed in the Year GEMARA": Soncino and Bomberg

“Printed in the Year Gamra” In 1483 Joshua Solomon Soncino opened a Hebrew press in Soncino, Italy. The press, one of the first Hebrew presses, printed almost twenty books in approximately five years. Among the books he published were volumes of the Talmud. He began printing with tractate Berachos, completed in 1484 (the numbers of the corresponding Hebrew year, 5244, are numerically equal to the word “Gemara”). Soncino Split-Off Gershon, one of the members of the Soncino family, moved from Soncino to Pesaro, Italy, where he continued printing. Like the other members of his family, he retained the last name Soncino, after the city where they had begun their printing empire. Gershom Soncino opened his press in Pesaro in 1507, and continued to print for twenty years, until 1527, publishing more than fifty books, about half of them Talmudic tractates, printed between 1509-1519. Finally: The First Complete Shas The first Bomberg Talmud – 1520-23 In 1520, Daniel Bomberg, a Christian who was one of the most important printers of Hebrew books, began printing the Talmud. He published the editio princeps – the first printed edition – of the entire Talmud in Venice from 1520-23.