98 folios (13 3/4 x 9 7/8 in.; 345 x 250 mm) (collation: i-vi8, vii8 + 1 [extra copy of f. 57], viii-xi8, xii9) on paper. Pen trials on ff. 3v, [11r], 16v-17r, 22r, 23r, 47v-48r, 49v; Arabic writing on f. 55r. Slight scattered staining; light dampstaining in upper-outer corner throughout; minor worming affecting only a few individual letters on ff. 1-15, more serious on ff. 16-31; gutters strengthened on ff. 1-15, 52-53, 57, 62-63; f. 1 supplied and backed on partially torn paper; small holes or slits in lower margins of f. 5, 34-35 and in outer margin of f. 6; minor stain at center on ff. 2r-6v; long tear near gutter at center on ff. 7, 14, partially repaired; ff. 16-24 supplied and featuring somewhat more dampstaining and wear than the rest of the volume; small wormhole near gutter at center on ff. 42-50v; repair in lower edge of f. 49; small tear in outer edge of f. 56; tears in outer edge of extra copy of f. 57 repaired; small hole in f. 80 affecting a few letters; small slit and hole in f. 97 affecting a few letters. Modern calf paneled in blind, very slightly scuffed; spine in seven compartments with raised bands; title, place, and date lettered in gilt on spine; modern paper flyleaves and pastedowns.

Avodah zarah (Foreign Worship), the eighth tractate in the order Nezikin, discusses, in five chapters, various laws regulating personal, business, and other types of interactions between Jews and Gentiles, especially idolaters. Its placement in Nezikin is due, in part, to its association with Makkot, which also deals with the laws of idolatry. The treatise contains a good deal of aggadic as well as important historical material concerning the relations between Jews and non-Jews, including Christians, Gnostics, and Zoroastrians. While the Bomberg text of Avodah zarah is complete and unexpurgated, many later editions suffered grievous losses at the hands of Christian censors. In fact, the sixteenth-century Basel edition of the Babylonian Talmud omitted the tractate entirely. Intact early copies of the treatise are thus particularly scarce. Literature

A.M. Habermann, Ha-madpis daniyyel bombirgi u-reshimat sifrei beit defuso (Safed: The Museum of Printing Art, 1978), 34 (no. 25).

Vinograd, Venice 29