Introduction; 1. Chapter One; 2. Chapter Two; 3. Chapter Three; 4. Chapter Four; 5. Chapter Five.
A new theory of the Talmud's formation based on comparison with late antique intellectual and material standards of book production.
Monika Amsler is a Postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Ancient History at the University of Bern. A historian of ancient religion, she is the editor of Knowledge Construction in Late Antiquity, published in the Trends in Classics Supplementary Volume Series.
'In this exceptional book, Monika Amsler offers a new account of
the Babylonian Talmud that centers the material dimensions of
information technology and textual organization in Mediterranean
antiquity. Amsler integrates a capacious range of sources from
throughout Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean, spanning roughly from
the first to sixth centuries CE, in order to locate rabbinic
knowledge production in a broader - and often neglected - context.
Amsler demonstrates exceptional command of a wide range of sources
and contexts, combined with a keen sensitivity to the material and
social dimensions of late ancient knowledge. The result is no less
than an insightful and innovative reconceptualization of rabbinic
literature.' Jeremiah Coogan, Assistant Professor of New Testament,
Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley, CA
'This is an important, provocative, and challenging book. Amsler
asks us to set aside what we think we know about the creation of
the Babylonian Talmud and to begin again. From information
collection, to filing and indexing, to the construction of
arguments, Amsler situates the Talmud within the world of book
production in the Roman world, and in particular within the
production of large compendia in late antiquity, and in the
techniques for arrangement and juxtaposition that were
essential to literate, rhetorical education.' Hayim Lapin,
Professor of History and Robert H. Smith Professor of Jewish
Studies, University of Maryland
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