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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: January 25,1996
Contact: Justin Harmon (609) 258-5732

Babylonian Talmud Donated to Firestone Library

PRINCETON, NJ. -- Herbert Freeman, a professor of computer engineering at Rutgers University, has donated a nearly complete set of the Babylonian Talmud to Princeton University's Firestone Library.

The set comprises 10 of 13 volumes published in Frankfurt am Main in 1720-23 by Johann Koellner.

"The publication of this edition of the Talmud rectified a long history of censorship and included for the first time certain addenda of importance to scholars," said James Weinberger, curator of Near East collections at Firestone Library. "Because of its scholarship and the excellence of its printing, it became a model for subsequent editions. Only a handful of libraries in the United States hold this work, and because of the wide-scale destruction of Hebrew books in Europe, this particular edition of the Talmud has become quite rare."

Professor Freeman is a native of Frankfurt; the volumes have been in his family for several generations. He and his wife, Joan, reside in Cranbury.

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