The reception history of Gersonides’ writings, according to their early printing history (fifteenth–sixteenth centuries)

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Abstract

The printing history of Gersonides’ works in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries closely mirrors their reception history. Here I will unearth the “Republic of Letters” whose most important members were printers and magihim (roughly: editors). The latter were responsible for establishing the texts to be printed, often using several versions of the text as found in different manuscripts (usually no autograph was available); they also assumed the task of proofreading. I will first describe the Gersonidean incunabula—his commentaries on the Pentateuch, Proverbs, Job, and Daniel—and place them among other contemporary printings so as to explain Gersonides’ appeal. Then I will consider how Gersonides’ biblical commentaries came to be included in Rabbinic Bible (miqraʾot gedolot) when it emerged the sixteenth century. This will tell us something about the history of the paratexts of the canonical books (Bible, Talmud, and legal codes). I assert that a significant number of Gersonides’ commentaries survived thanks their abridgments to fit in the margins of the printed volumes of canonical texts—a phenomenon parallel to the history of glosses in the earlier manuscript period
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationGersonides' Afterlife
Subtitle of host publicationStudies on the Reception of Levi ben Gerson's Philosophical, Halakhic and Scientific Oeuvre in the 14th through 20th Centuries
EditorsOfer Elior, Gad Freudenthal, David Wirmer
PublisherBrill
Chapter15
Pages403-413
ISBN (Electronic)9789004425286
ISBN (Print)9789004425279
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2020

Publication series

NameStudies in Jewish History and Culture
PublisherBrill
Volume62
ISSN (Print)1568-5004

Keywords

  • Hebrew imprints -- History -- 15th century
  • Hebrew imprints -- History -- 16th century
  • Levi ben Gershom, 1288-1344

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