Venetian secularism

Leo Dong -

The very first printed versions of the Talmud and the Quran were produced in Venice. The Talmud was printed in 1520 by Daniel Bomberg,[1][2] while the Quran was printed in either 1537 or 1538[3] by Paganino Paganini and his son, Alessandro.[4][5]

This was a result of the Renaissance ideals held by the Venetians during that period, with both printers carrying out these tasks in search of a deeper understanding of the roots of Christianity.

  1. A Christian scholar interested in Hebrew texts, contrary to what his surname might suggest; https://jewishpubliclibrary.org/maḥzor-bnei-roma/. ↩︎

  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Bomberg. ↩︎

  3. And only discovered in 1987. ↩︎

  4. This publication never seemed to have reached the Islamic world, and authorised printed editions of the Quran did not appear until the late 18th century in St Petersburg. ↩︎

  5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paganino_Paganini. ↩︎