Daniel Blomberg and Henry-viii.
Historical Incident.
When Christians Helped the Jews. Printing the Talmud.
The Soncino Ashkenazi Jewish family began printing the Talmud the town of Soncino, Lombardy in the duchy of Milan, Italy, in 1483.
"The Soncino prints, though not the earliest, excelled all the others in their perfection of type and their correctness."
The Soncino house is also notable for being the location where the first Hebrew Bible was printed.
Daniel Bomberg's Publication in Venice of the Babylonian Talmud (1519-23) adopted the format created by Joshua Solomon Soncino, with the Talmud text in the middle of the page and the commentaries of Rashi and Tosfot surrounding it.
Published with the approval of Pope Leo X, this edition became the standard format, which all later editions have followed.
Pope Leo X built Saint Peter's Cathedral in Rome, sold Indulgences (partial forgiveness of sins) and was opposed by Martin Luther in Germany. He also refused to allow Henry-viii to divorces, or annul the marriage of, his wife Catherine of Aragon.
Pope Leo enjoyed the company of good-looking young Italian aristocrats. He was accused of homosexuality by Luther and others. Nothing concrete was ever proven however as far as we know.
Daniel Bomberg (c. 1483 - c. 1549) was one of the most important early printers of Hebrew books. A Christian Hebraist from Antwerp, Belgium, who employed rabbis, scholars and apostates in his Venice publishing house, Bomberg printed the first Mikraot Gdolot (Rabbinic Bible) and the first complete Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, based on the layout pioneered by the Soncino family printers, with the commentaries of Rashi, and of the Tosfot in the margins.
The editions set standards that are still in use today, in particular the pagination of the Babylonian Talmud. His publishing house printed about 200 Hebrew books, including Siddurim, responsa, codes of law, works of philosophy and ethics and commentaries. He was the first Hebrew printer in Venice and the first non-Jewish printer of Hebrew books.
At the beginning of his enterprise Blomberg employed Jewish apostates but shortly afterwards these were replaced by regular Jews.
The standardized pagination and printing of the Talmud was quite important in Jewish History. Learning the Talmud has always existed and was always important BUT it maybe that only in our own time has it acheived the importance it now has.
In 1530, King Henry VIII ordered a complete, nine-volume set of the Venetian Daniel Bomberg Talmud
to research Jewish law for his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, intending to prove his marriage was biblically forbidden. The volumes arrived too late for his legal case but remained pristine in Westminster Abbey for centuries.