The first sefer (ספר קודש) with modern footnotes

Another interesting historical nugget that I just came across in הישיבה הרמה בפיורדא, (Volume II, p.115), is re the first sefer (ספר קודש) to use modern, numbered footnotes.

It is stated there that modern, numbered footnotes first appeared in the writings of Western scholars in the beginning of the 1600’s C.E., but they did not appear in ספרי קודש until close to two hundred years later, when the sefer מעין החכמה, of Rav Chaim Zvi Harsch Berlin, appeared.

One can gaze at this חידוש with ease here, with a click or two of a mouse, courtesy of the great Hebrewbooks.org site.

So according to the above, we are only a few years away from the bi-centennial of footnotes in ספרי קודש.

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Tags: Seforim