=4. Some Jewish Results from the Invention of Printing.=――The great zeal expended at this period on the study of Hebrew was soon noticeable in the extensive use made of the newly invented art of printing for the multiplying of copies of Hebrew works. The printing firm of Daniel Bomberg at Venice published the edition of the Biblia Rabbinica (i.e. Hebrew text with Chaldaic version called Targum, Massoretic notes, and various Hebrew commentaries) in 1516‒17, and of the Talmud in 1520‒26. And these were by no means the first Hebrew works that were printed. A commentary of Rashi’s[56] on the Pentateuch was published at Reggio in 1475, and in the same year the larger work, ‘Arba-Turim’ (Code of Laws), in Pieve di Sacco. The first Hebrew printing establishment in Germany was founded by Gerson Soncino in Prague, 1513. The family of Soncino contributed much to the spread of printing among the Jews. Hebrew printing presses were soon set up at Fano, Pesaro, Mantua, and other places. The Jews showed from the first both zeal and skill in promoting the printing of Hebrew literature. Their rejoicing at the new invention was soon, however, damped by the introduction of a censorship for Jewish books, and Jewish authors and compilers had to see their pet works mutilated by priests and laymen who often were incapable of getting at the sense of what they examined. Renegade Jews occasionally officiated as censors, and added malice to ignorance. Printers and editors by degrees, foreseeing the passages which would meet with adverse censorship, would carefully prepare their text for examination by omissions. And so, after all, not very much harm was done. Complete copies could generally be found in States which were free from censorship, and scholars with good memories were often at hand to supply the missing links. In the present day books printed in Russia or imported into Russia are subject to censorship, and passages which to the censors appear objectionable are made illegible.