Printed editions of the Tosefta
The first printed edition of the Tosefta was done by the famous printer, Daniel Bomberg, in Venice, in 1521. It was printed together with the Halachot of the Rif in a 3 volume edition. The text of the Tosefta is dispersed throughout the volumes. The editors of the Venice edition used at least two manuscripts, both of which contained many mistakes, as the editors themselves note in the end of Seder Zerayim. The editors wrote that despite many mistakes they did not change any of the text based on their own ideas, but rather kept exactly as it was in the manuscripts. Due to this strict adherence to the original manuscripts most scholars consider this edition authoritative enough to be used as one of the original references of the text together with the extant manuscripts.
Since then there have been only a few more editions of the Tosefta. Two of those editions are critical editions which contains variant readings from multiple manuscripts.
The first critical edition and the only such edition on the whole Tosefta was done by Rav Moshe Shmuel Zuckermandel, originally published in Trier, in 1882. The second edition was published in 1937, in Jerusalem. It was based on the Erfurt and the Vienna manuscripts. This edition still contained some mistakes in the text, since Zuckermandel did not write it directly from the manuscripts themselves but rather from their copies, some of which were made by him and some of which were made by others.
The second critical edition was done by Professor Saul Lieberman and published by JTS (Jewish Theological Seminary) in New York, in 1955, and then again with an additional volume in 1988. Lieberman used all of the available manuscripts and Geniza fragments and the Venice printed edition. It was proofread and compared to the facsimiles of the manuscripts multiple times, so it is very accurate. Unfortunately Lieberman did not publish the whole Tosefta. In 1955 only 3 Sedarim: Zerayim, Moed and Nashim, were published. And in 1988, already after his death, a 4th volume of a part of Seder Nezikin with Masechtot Bava Kama, Bava Metzia and Bava Batra was published. Lieberman wrote in the introduction that he decided not to pick the best version of the text by critical analysis and instead followed the Vienna manuscript exactly as it was, since he felt that it was the best available manuscript. The variant readings from other manuscripts and the first edition are included in the notes below the main text.
The remaining editions of the text of the Tosefta are summarized in the list below. They are not really authoritative or particularly accurate as most of them are copied from the previous printed editions or the critical editions. In some cases the editors made changes to them based on the text that appears in Talmud Bavli or Yerushalmi, which made it really distorted since many times it only appears that the Talmud is quoting the Tosefta, when in reality it is quoting a different Beraita with similar content.
1) Tosefta. Venice 1552. Complete. This is the 2nd Venice edition by the press of Daniel Bomberg.
2) Tosefta Magen Avraham. Amsterdam 1732. Seder Nezikin only.
3) Tosefta Yam Yissachar. Metz 1769. Masechta Beitza only.
4) Hatosefta. Vilna 1799. Seder Zerayim only. Published with the commentary of the Gra (Vilna Gaon).
5) Tosefta Tosafot Bikkurim. Shklov 1809. Seder Moed only.
6) Tosefta in the back of Talmud Bavli, Vilna Romm edition. Vilna 1835. Complete. This is the most common edition of the Tosefta as it is reprinted with every reprint of Talmud Bavli.
7) Tosefta Tanna Tosfaa. Vilna 1837. Seder Nashim only.
8) Tosefta Cheshek Shlomo. Presbourg 1889-1890. Sedarim Zerayim and Nashim only. The text was edited by Rav Shlomo Leib Friedlander, the author of the commentary on the Tosefta, Cheshek Shlomo.
9) Tosefta Minchat Yitzchak. Jerusalem 1889-1914. Seder Zerayim and Masechta Shabbat only.
10) Tosefta Higayon Aryeh. Vilna 1890 – Frankfurt Am Main 1901, 1912. Seder Zerayim and Masechtot Bava Kama and Chulin only. The text was edited by Rav Aryeh Schwartz, the author of the commentary on the Tosefta, Higayon Aryeh.
11) Tosefta Techelet Mordechai. Paks (Hungary) 1895-1901. Seder Moed only.
12) Tosefta Chazon Yechezkel. Vilna 1925 – Jerusalem 1975. Complete. It should be noted that the text of the Tosefta was edited by the editor of the printing press and not by Rav Yechezkel Abramsky who wrote the commentary Chazon Yechezkel, as mentioned in the introduction of the editor.
13) Tosefta Shleima. Tel Aviv 1938. Masechta Shabbat only. The Text is vowelized.
14) Mishna Vehatosefta. Haifa, 1939. Masechta Berachot only. The text was edited and vowelized by Yakov Meir Zelkind.
15) Tosefta Chasdei David. Jerusalem 1970. Complete. This edition contains the text from second Venice edition of 1552.