[Avodah] Tosfot (not)

[David Riceman]

Me:
> : IIRC Urbach discusses the composition and transmission of the 
> printed : Tosafos in chapters one and thirteen of his book Baalei 
> HaTosafot.
>   
RMB (seconded by RJR)
> Given that few people have the book, isn't this just a tease?
>   
If more battei midrash would buy scholarly books it would save wear and 
tear on my bank account and clutter in my study.  Anyway here goes (I'm 
translating from the fourth edition Mossad Bialik, Jerusalem, 5740):

"Up to the beginning of Hebrew printing [different communities] used 
different tosafot.  In Italy it seems Tosafot R. Peretz were widespread, 
in Germany <Ashkenaz> Tosafot Tuch (Touque), and in Spain Tosafot 
HaRosh.  There were also other collections <Tosafot yeshanim> of Tosafot 
including the Ri, the Rivam, R. Yosef, Tosafot Shantz (Sens), R. Judah 
of Paris, R. Baruch, and others.  As we explained, later tosafot 
replaced <dahaku> earlier tosafot." p. 28

"There are few manuscripts of Talmud which include tosafot.  To the 
extent that they have survived they include our tosafot [the tosafot 
printed in the standard editions of Shas].  Tosafot Berachot was first 
printed in 5244 in Soncino by R. Yehoshua Shlomo, and they are the first 
printed tosafot, since the printed fragments of Talmud from Spain 
include neither Rashi nor tosafot.  R. Yehoshua Shlomo's nephew, the 
famous printer R. Gershom Soncino, printed until 5279, and claimed that 
he printed 23 tractates including tosafot.  He says about their source: 
"I found manuscripts which had been hidden and sealed until now, and I 
revealed them to the eye of the sun, may they shine like the firmament, 
like Tosafot Tuch of Ri and RT.  I travelled to France and Chambery and 
Zenobra (Genevra) to their ancestors' rooms to benefit the multitudes, 
because in Spain and Italy and the neighboring lands <kol ha'aratzot> we 
have only the tosafot of Shantz, of R. Peretz, R. Shimshon, and their 
colleagues." <snip> It was he who selected the tosafot for most of the 
tractates of the Talmud, and the later printers of the Talmud followed 
his precedent." pp. 29-30

The bottom line is that unprinted tosafot were hard and expensive to find.

Incidentally in chapter 13 he goes through the printed tosafot of each 
tractate and identifies their source.

David Riceman