When Non-Jewish Printers Fought Over the Rambam

00:21 One of the earliest seforim, Yiddish seforim that was published was the Rambam. It was first published in Rome in the year of Reich men, 1480. We don't have that edition, but we have part of the edition of Soncino Reich Nun, 1490. We have about 20 pages of that edition that we found in binding of other seforim printed, um, a little later in that era. Years later, we already discussed in previous lectures that in Venice opened a large print house by Bomberg. He published many Yiddish seforim in a period of about 30 years. In the year of Reich pay Dalet, he published the Rambam. Together with the Rambam, he printed two of the commentaries on the Rambam, the Magid Mishneh and the Mikdalez, and this was the main edition of the Rambam for the next 25 years. We already discussed that Bomberg was- had his print shop in Venice for a period of 30 years till about, uh, about Shin Ches, 1548. Then he retired and he left Venice, and in Venice opened two large print houses for printing Jewish books. One was by the owner of Bragadin, and the second was by the owner of Justinian. And they had some kind of fight between them who should get the market of the Jewish seforim. So the Rambam was the key Sefer that they both decided to print it in a large, nice format. Bragadin hired then the goen, Rabbi Meir of Padme, Maharam of Padme. He should serve as a proofreader for this edition of

03:27 the Rambam. Not only proofreading, but he also added comments, commentaries on the Rambam that was published in that edition. But Justinian decided that he wants to get the market. He knew that if Bragadin has the comments of the Maharam of Padme and he wouldn't have that comments, so Bragadin is going to get more of the market. What did he decide to do? He waited till they printed the Rambam by Bragadin, and then he got one copy, and he copied from there all the comments of the Maharam of Padme. And he also wrote on the front page that this is a special edition of the Rambam Mugge with comments, commentary by the Maharam of Padme. Obviously, this was a naive. It was not fair, not only for the printer of Bragadin, it wasn't fair for the Maharam of Padme that he was hired and working for Bragadin, and here Justinian is stealing all his work. In that, uh, uh, yes, the pesek hadeah in that area was the Ramoh, Ramoh Israelish, that he then wrote the Hagahos on the Shulchan Aruch that we learn till today. He wrote then a tshuva to Klal Yisrael. You shall know that the Maharam of Padme wrote his comments for the printer Bragadin, and Justinian stole it, and therefore you should buy the Ta- the Rambam of Bragadin. Justinian be- became very upset. Here he is losing the market of the Jews. He decided to go with a mesira to the government to the Catholic Church. And then it became,

06:17 came back another Mesira of Bragadin. And as usually when two Goyim, two Pritsim are fighting, the result come, comes that they fight the Jews. So they started giving Mesiras an oath form of the Jewish people, mainly about the Shas, mainly about the Talmud Bavli. They found there some comments in the Talmud that are not honorable for the Catholic belief and for their founder. It took two years till it came out the Gzeras HaTalmud, Srefas HaTalmud. They should burn and take away all the Talmuds that are in the whole Italy. We already discussed that in a previous lecture. We didn't discuss then what brought this Gzera, and that's the printing of the Mish, Mishne Teyre of the Rambam in the year of Shin Yud, 1550, by Bragadin and Yosh Tin Yan in Venice that brought about this Gzera of Srefas HaTalmud in Shin Yud Gimel, three years later, in the year of 1553. There is one more edition of the Rambam that is worth to notice, which was published 24 years later in Venice. The Beis Yosef, Rabbi Yosef Karo of Sfas in Israel, wrote a commentary on the Rambam, which is called Kesef Mishne. And he sent it to print in the new edition of the Rambam in Venice, printed in Shin Lamed Dalet, 1574. Since then, all the Rambams that are published over the generations are always coming together with these three commentaries, the Magid Mishne and the Migdaleis that are already published in Reish Pit Dalet by Bomberg, and then the commentary of

09:13 Kesef Mishne by Rabbi Yosef Karo that was added in the year of Shin Lamed Dalet, 1574. Obviously, we have all these editions, the Bomberg, Bragadin, Yosh Tin Yan, and the new one that was published with the Pirush of Rabbi Yosef Karo, the Kesef Mishne, in Shin Lamed Dalet in 1574.