The ''Extractiones de Talmud'' is a collection of passages from the

Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...

translated from

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

and

Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...

into

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

in 1244–1245. It is the earliest substantial translation of any part of the Talmud into Latin and the largest collection of Latin Talmudic excerpts. Around 1238,

Nicholas Donin Nicholas Donin (french: Nicolas Donin) of La Rochelle, a Jewish convert to Christianity in early thirteenth-century Paris, is known for his role in the 1240 Disputation of Paris, which resulted in a decree for the public burning of all available ...

, a Jewish convert to Christianity, first translated some excerpts as part of his 35 criticisms of the Talmud that he submitted to

Pope Gregory IX Pope Gregory IX ( la, Gregorius IX; born Ugolino di Conti; c. 1145 or before 1170 – 22 August 1241) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 March 1227 until his death in 1241. He is known for issuing the '' Decre ...

in 1239. One result of this effort was the

Disputation of Paris The Disputation of Paris ( ''Mishpat Pariz''; ), also known as the Trial of the Talmud (), took place in 1240 at the court of King Louis IX of France. It followed the work of Nicholas Donin, a Jewish convert to Christianity who translated the T ...

(1240), after which the Talmud was condemned and thousands of copies ultimately burned (1242).

Pope Innocent IV Pope Innocent IV ( la, Innocentius IV; – 7 December 1254), born Sinibaldo Fieschi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 June 1243 to his death in 1254. Fieschi was born in Genoa and studied at the universitie ...

, who came to the throne in 1243, initiated a review of the case against the Talmud. Commissioned by

Odo of Châteauroux Odo or Eudes of Châteauroux ( –25 January 1273), also known as and by many other names, was a French theologian and scholastic philosopher, papal legate and cardinal. He was “an experienced preacher and promoter of crusades”. Over 100 ...

, the Dominicans of the convent of Saint-Jacques in Paris began a partial translation of the Talmud (among other Jewish writings). The resulting ''Extractiones de Talmud'', completed in 1245, contains 1,922 excerpts. There are two surviving versions with different arrangements of the excerpts. The "sequential" version arranges the excerpts in the same order in which they appear in the Talmud. The "thematic" version arranges them by subject under polemical

rubric A rubric is a word or section of text that is traditionally written or printed in red ink for emphasis. The word derives from the la, rubrica, meaning red ochre or red chalk, and originates in Medieval illuminated manuscripts from the 13th cent ...

s. There are separate prologues for each version. There are a total of ten manuscript copies of the ''Extractiones''. The most important copy is Paris,

Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...

, MS lat. 16558 from the 13th century. The ''Extractiones'' contains much more of the Talmud than either Donin's short work or the ''Pugio fidei'' of

Ramon Martí Raymond Martini, also called Ramon Martí in Catalan, was a 13th-century Dominican friar and theologian. He is remembered for his polemic work ''Pugio Fidei'' (c. 1270). In 1250 he was one of eight friars appointed to make a study of oriental lan ...

, which also contains independently translated excerpts.

Editions

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * {{refend 1245 works Talmud versions and translations Translations into Latin