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112 leaves. Central column of text surrounded by extensive commentary. (folio) 37.3x25 cm (14½x9¾"), modern blindstamped calf. Third Bomberg Edition.

Complete tractate from the third edition of the Bomberg Talmud - the 1548 printing is the rarest edition of the Talmud printed by Daniel Bomberg, since it was produced just five years before the "Conflagration of the Talmud" instigated by the papal decree issued in August 1553, designating the Talmud and related works as blasphemous and condemning them to be burned. On Sept. 9, 1553, the Jewish New Year, a huge pyre was set up in the Campo de' Fiori in Rome of Hebrew books that had been seized from Jewish homes, including a large portion of the edition of the Talmud recently published by Bomberg. Daniel Bomberg, founder of the Bomberg Press, a Christian born in Antwerp, found a ready audience among the Jews of Italy, whose numbers had been swelled by exiles from Spain and Portugal, and the Bomberg Press eventually produced some 230 Hebrew books, his innovations in Hebrew typography setting the standard for later printers.