Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot – Slavita, 1817 – Approbation and Authorization by the Baal HaTanya

Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot – Slavita, 1817 – Approbation and Authorization by the Baal HaTanya
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot, with Rav Alfas, Rosh, Mordechai, Rambam's commentary on Mishnayot, Maharsha and Maharam; Mishnayot and Tosefta of Order Zera'im. Slavita: R. Moshe Shapira Rabbi of Slavita, [1817]. With approbations by the Baal HaTanya, the Ohev Yisrael of Apta and R. Yisrael of Pikov.
This Talmud edition offers several innovations; one of them being that the works of Rav Alfas (the Rif), the Mordechai and the Tosefta were appended to the appropriate tractate in each volume.
The printing of this edition took place under heavy competition with the printer R. Yisrael Yoffe of Kopust, who also printed a Talmud edition in 1816-1828. Yet "it is self-understood that everyone went to buy his edition [of R. Moshe Shapira of Slavita], which is very beautiful and contains many commentaries" (R. R.N.N. Rabinowitz, Maamar al Hadpasat HaTalmud, p. 131).
The volumes of the first Slavita Talmud edition were printed in 1801-1806, under the initiative and with the funding of the Baal HaTanya. Before the printing of the second edition (1808-1813), the Baal HaTanya sold all publishing rights to the printer R. Moshe Shapira, rabbi of Slavita. On the verso of the title page of Tractate Berachot of the second edition, as well as in the present edition, R. Moshe Shapira printed the letter in which the Baal HaTanya attests that he is transferring all the publishing rights to R. Moshe Shapira and his representatives.
There are several differences between the original approbation by the Baal HaTanya, of which the manuscript is still extant (see Igrot Kodesh of the Baal HaTanya, Brooklyn 2012, p. 354, for a picture of it) and the printed version. The Baal HaTanya refers to R. Moshe Shapira with several titles of honor, which were omitted in this edition.
Another difference: The Baal HaTanya transfers in this approbation all publishing rights, as well as all the restrictions that the rabbis wrote in their approbations, to the printer R. Moshe Shapira and his heirs. He writes that the rabbis had granted exclusive rights to print the Talmud "for twenty-five years from the beginning of the printing" of the 1801-1806 edition. As such, the twenty-five years, which began in 1801, would conclude in 1826. Later in the approbation, the Baal HaTanya relates to these rights (in the original): "Far from any Jew to violate his rights and reprint the Talmud… through any ploy or ruse in the world, until the time period determined by these great Torah scholars in their approbations has expired". However, this last sentence was altered in print, and it reads: "until the end of the twenty-five years from the completion of the printing", meaning that the twenty-five years only began in 1806, and would thus end in 1831 (understandably, this alteration contradicts the earlier sentence, which clearly defines the time period as starting "from the beginning of the printing" of the 1801-1806 edition).
Also added here are the words: "whether in this format or in a different format", which do not appear in the handwritten approbation.
Signature on the title page, (in Rashi script): "Gershon son of R. Reuven Yeshel[?]".
Separate title pages for Rav Alfas and Mishnayot Order Zera'im.
[1], 137; 64; 70 leaves. Approx. 33.5 cm. Light-bluish paper. Most leaves in good condition, title page and several other leaves in fair condition. Stains, including dampstains. Wear. Open tears to title page and subsequent leaves, affecting text, repaired with paper. Other damage to leaf 2, slightly affecting text, repaired with paper. Worming to some leaves. New binding.