NO.69
SPRING 2006
BENE LEGERE
NEWSLETTER
OF THE
LIBRARY ASSOCIATES
The Library Associates
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Second Biblia Rabbinica
Judaica Collection of the Bancroft Library
These four folio volumes stand as masterworks of early Hebrew printing. To realize that the Biblia Rabbinca was published less than fifty years after the first printed Hebrew book is stunning. There's an experience that goes beyond the text itself.
--Paul Hamburg, Librarian for the Judaica Collection
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The Second Biblia Rabbinica is one of the most important printed editions of the Hebrew Bible. Published in Venice in four volumes by Daniel Bomberg in 1524-1525, it was the first edition to present the Masorah, the extensive Jewish tradition concerning the correctly vocalized and chanted Hebrew text of the Scriptures accumulated over centuries. Edited by Jacob ben Chaim ibn Adoniyah of Tunis, this Second Biblia Rabbinca was based on an examination of all available manuscipts of the Hebrew Bible, and was received with great acclaim in the Jewish community. Berkeley's Second Biblia Rabbinica is one of a handful of existing copies. The labor involved in setting the type for the four volumes was prodigious, requiring two years' work from a team of probably a dozen printers.