MISHNAH : Zeraim, Moed, Nashim Unknown Edition Printed in Pisaro or Constantinopole Author      Publisher   makor        290.00   MISHNAH Sedarim: Zeraim, Moed, Nashim Unknown Edition Printed in Pisaro or Constantinopole     A facsimile edition of the only extant copy at the National and Hebrew University Library, Jerusalem   The importance of this unknown edition of the Mishna has been stressed by the noted Taimudist V. N. Epstein both in articles ararynd in his monumental “Introduction to the Text of the Mishna” (“Mayo LeNusach HaMishna”). In the chapter devoted to this edition (“Mayo”, p. 1279 f.) Epstein points out that the text before us is in many ways similar to certain manuscripts, and that additions to the Mishna included in later printed texts were not Incorporated in this edition. Nor is the text of this unknown edition completely identical with the Sitlo princeps of the Mishna (Naples 1492), and thus the value of this Mishna text is not inferior to that of the early Mishna manuscripts, although the interesting variants within the text have yet to be systematically studied. According to Epstein a copy of this edition was part of the Abraham Merzbacher collection, and it was this copy that was used by Rabinowitz in his “Dikduke Soferim”, albeit for only a portion of Seder Moed. The copy subsequently disappeared. but another copy (reaching the end of Nashim) was discovered in 1946 and purchased by the National and Hebrew University Library, and as far as is known is the only remaining copy in existence. Upon its discovery the text was described by both Epstein and A. Vaari (cf. Tarbiz vol. xvii; Kiryat Sefer 1946). Rabinowitz referred to this text as the “Pisaro edition”, whereas  Epstein is convinced that the text was printed in Constantinopole. A number of lacunae exist throughout the text, and these were completed by hand, in Yemenite script   One Volume