4420 volumes, and was bought by the Trustees of the Museum in 1848. Other
successive acquisitions, especially the purchase of a large number of
printed books from the Almanzi collection, brought the Museum into
possession of one of the most complete and one of the largest Hebrew
libraries in the world.
After the foregoing remarks on the quantity of this collection, I shall
now attempt to give some idea of its quality. The following table, taken
from the Preface of Zedner’s _Catalogue_, shows its manifold contents:—
1. Bibles, 1260
2. Commentaries on the Bible, 510
3. Talmud, 730
4. Commentaries on the Talmud, 700
5. Codes of Law, 1260
6. Decisions, 520
7. Midrash, 160
8. Cabbalah, 460
9. Sermons, 400
10. Liturgies, 1200
11. Divine Philosophy, 690
12. Scientific works, 180
13. Grammars, Dictionaries, 450
14. History, Geography, 320
15. Poetry, Criticism, 770
The reader can see that almost every branch of human thought, religious
and secular, is amply represented in this collection. Looking at this
table from a geographical point of view, we may perhaps classify the
authors in the following way:—France and Germany in the Middle Ages,
Poland and the East in modern times, are represented by the fourth, fifth,
and sixth classes. The Rabbis of Spain and Italy would probably excel in
the last five classes. In the productions of classes eight and nine all
the before‐mentioned countries would have an equal share. English Judaism,
by reason of its large number of occasional prayers and wedding hymns
(Zedner, pp. 472, 652), may perhaps be represented in the last class
(criticism excluded). We in England are a pious, devotional people, and
leave the thinking to others.
But what is still more welcome to the student is the fact that all these
branches of Jewish learning are represented in the British Museum by the
best editions. It would be a rather tedious task to enumerate here all the
early editions of which this collection can boast. There is hardly any
Hebrew book of importance from the Bible down to the Code of R. Joseph
Caro of which the Museum does not possess the first printed edition. There
are also many books and editions in the Museum of which no second copy is
known to be in existence. An enumeration of these rare books and editions
would require long lists, the perusal of which would be rather trying. But
I shall say a few words to show the importance of such early editions for
the student. They possess, first, the advantage of being free from the
misprints which crept in with every fresh republication. The art of
editing books in a correct and scientific way is of a very recent date.
And even Hebrew literature does not find that support from the public
which would enable scholars to edit Jewish books in such a way as Roman
and Greek classics are prepared by Oxford and Cambridge students. A new
edition of a Hebrew book meant therefore an addition of new mistakes and
misprints. And it is only by examining the _editiones principes_ that the
scholar finds his way out of these perplexities.
Another advantage is the fact that these early editions escaped the hand
of the censor, whose office was not introduced till a comparatively late
date. The same advantage is also possessed by the Hebrew books published
at Constantinople, Salonica, and other Mohammedan cities. Only Christian
countries indulged in the barbarous pleasure of burning and disfiguring
Jewish books. It is one of the most touching points in the life of R.
David Oppenheim, of Prague, who spent all his life and fortune in
collecting Hebrew works, and whose collection now forms one of the
greatest ornaments of the Bodleian Library, that he was not allowed by the
censor to enjoy the use of his treasures. He had to put them under the
protection of Lipman Cohen, his father‐in‐law in Hanover, many hundreds of
miles from his own home. With the exception of the Bible hardly any Jewish
books escaped mutilation. In certain Christian countries some books were
not allowed to be published at all; of others, again, whole chapters had
to be omitted, while of others many passages had to be expunged. The words
Roman, Greek, Gentile, were strictly forbidden, and had to be changed into
Turks, Arabs, Samaritans, or worshippers of the stars and planets. One can
imagine what confusion such stupid alterations caused. Fancy what blunders
would have been committed in history if the old chroniclers had been
compelled to change the Pope into the Grand Turk or the Shah of Persia,
the Christian rulers into as many califs and pashas, or Rome and Athens
into Pekin and Mecca!
It may perhaps be interesting to learn that Jews sometimes imitated their
bitter enemies in this work of mutilation. Thus in the later editions of
the _Book of Genealogies_ by Abraham Zacuto,(219) a passage was left out
reproducing the evidence given by the widow of Moses de Leon to the effect
that the cabbalistic work, the Zohar, was a forgery manufactured by her
poor dear husband. Another omission of this kind is to be found in the
Code of R. Joseph Caro, mentioned above. Here the earliest editions
declare, in the heading of section 605, “a certain religious usage” to be
“a custom of folly.” In the republications, the last three words were left
out. From such nonsensical omissions and changes only the earliest
editions, which are abundant in the Museum, were exempt.
A remarkable feature about the books of this Hebrew collection also is
that many of them are provided in the margin with manuscript notes by
their former possessors. These often happen to bear very great names in
literature. I shall only mention here R. Jacob Emden, Almanzi, Michael,
Gerundi, and Heidenheim. Of the works written by R. Jacob Emden, the
Museum possesses an almost complete author’s copy with abundant
corrections, notes, and emendations by the author himself. His works are
still very popular among Polish and Russian Jews, especially his Prayer‐
Book, and his Responses. It would be advisable for publishers in these
countries to avail themselves of this copy on the occasion of a new
edition. Of Christian scholars I should name here Isaac Casaubon. A rather
amusing mistake occurs in Ben‐Jacob’s _Treasure of Books_ in connection
with this name. Among the many valuable copies of Kimchi’s grammatical
work _Perfection_,(220) possessed by the Museum, there is included one
which belonged to Casaubon, and is full of notes by him. The author of the
_Treasure_ speaks of a _Perfection_ with notes by Rabbi Yitzchak Kasuban.
I was at first at a loss to guess who that Rabbi Casaubon might be. When
examining Zedner I found it was no other than the famous Christian
scholar, Isaac Casaubon. It is not known that Casaubon’s ambition lay in
this direction. But when Philo was regarded as a Father of the Church, Ben
Gabirol quoted for many centuries as a Mohammedan philosopher, why should
not Casaubon obtain for once the dignity of a Rabbi?
After having given the reader some notion of the collection of printed
works, I should like now to invite him to accompany me through the
Manuscript Department of the Museum. But I am afraid that I shall make a
bad guide here; for the Museum is still without a descriptive catalogue of
the Hebrew manuscripts, which is the only means of enabling the student to
obtain a general view of the number and nature of these works. The
manuscript catalogue of Dukes goes only as far as 1856. It was, as we
shall soon see, just after this time that the Museum made its largest and,
to a certain degree also, its most valuable acquisitions in Hebrew
manuscripts. The following remarks must, therefore, not be taken as the
result of a systematic study of this collection, which would be quite
impossible without the aid of a catalogue. They rest partly on the
descriptions given of a certain number of manuscripts in the catalogue by
Dukes, but for the greater part on occasional glances at this or that MS.
As to the history of the collection, it has grown out of small beginnings
just as that of printed books. The collection of Dr. Sloane, which laid
the foundation of the Museum Library, contained only nine Hebrew MSS.
Later acquisitions, as the Harleian collection, the Cottonian collection,
the Royal collection, and many other smaller collections marked as
Additional up to 1854, increased the number of the Hebrew manuscripts to
232. Of much more importance was the Almanzi collection, bought by the
trustees of the Museum in 1865, and consisting of 335 MSS. Of succeeding
acquisitions I shall mention here only the Yemen MSS., which were brought
to this country by the famous Shapira. The number of Hebrew MSS. at the
present day is said to exceed one thousand. But we must not forget that
many MSS. contain more than one work; in some cases even three or four, so
that the number of Hebrew works is far greater still.
I shall now speak of the nature and importance of these MSS. As to their
contents they may be easily grouped under the following headings: Biblical
MSS., Commentaries (to the Bible) and Super‐Commentaries, parts of the
Talmud and their Commentaries, Theology, Philosophy and Ethics, Massorah,
Grammar and Lexicography, Cabbalah, Poetry, Mathematics, Astronomy,
Astrology and Magic, Historical and Polemical Literature, etc. All these
branches of theological and secular learning and even of human folly are
fairly represented in the collection of Hebrew MSS. in the Museum, though
often only by a part or a fragment of a work.
Thus the Babylonian Talmud is to be found only in two MSS. (Harl. 5508 and
Add. 25,717) both of them including 11 Tractates, hardly a third part of
the whole work. Indeed poor “Rabbinus Talmud” had to go to the _auto de
fé_ on so many occasions that one cannot wonder if only disjointed limbs
are to be found of him in libraries. The only complete MS. copy which
escaped this vandalism is that in the Royal Library in Munich, from which
Mr. Rabbinowicz has edited his monumental work, _Variae Lectiones of the
Talmud_.
All other libraries, Oxford included, have to be satisfied with fragments.
Still worse, as it is seen, fared the Jerusalem Talmud, and excepting the
well‐known copy in Leyden from which the Venice edition was prepared, not
even fragments of this Talmud are to be found in the majority of
libraries. To my knowledge it is only the British Museum which can boast
of the Jerusalem Talmud in MS. extending over _Order of Seeds_ and one
tractate of _Order of Festivals_(221) (Or. 2122‐24) with commentaries of
R. Solomon Syrillo, the first few pages of which were edited by Dr.
Lehmann of Mayence. The Museum also possesses a great part of the Tosephta
extending over 14 Tractates (Add. 27,296). Of Midrashim we find in the
Museum two excellent manuscripts of the Genesis _Rabbah_, one of the
Leviticus _Rabbah_, and one of the _Siphra_ and the _Siphré_ (Add. 27,169
and 16,406), besides two copies of the Midrash _Haggadol_ and other
Aagadic collections brought from Yemen. The _Midrash_ by Machir b. Abba
Mari to the minor prophets included in the Harleian collection (5704) is
unique. Of Liturgies, besides a great number of MSS. representing the most
peculiar rites, I shall mention the Machzor(222) Vitri (Add. 27,200‐1)
composed by the disciples of R. Solomon b. Isaac, and forming in itself
almost a small library. For, apart from the prayers for festivals and week
days which gave it its title, it includes, besides the _Sayings of the
Fathers_ with a large commentary, three of the Minor Tractates of the
Talmud, many responses by German and French Rabbis, and a whole series of
religious hymns by German and Spanish authors, and many other literary
pieces. Cabbalah is represented by various valuable writings of the pre‐
Zoharistic time (see for instance Add. 15,299) and the works of R. Moses
de Leon and R. Abraham Abulafia. Of Poetry, I shall point here to the
Tarshish of R. Moses Ibn Ezra, the Makames by Judah Al Charisi (Add.
27,122), and the Divan of R. Abraham of Bedres (Add. 27,188). Of works
relating to grammar and lexicography, I may refer to a Codex (Add. 27,214)
which contains the lexicon of R. Menahem ben Saruk, which is considered as
the oldest Hebrew MS. in the Museum, dating from the year 1091. Of
historical works, I mention the chronicle of R. Joseph the Priest (Add.
27,122) and the letter of R. Sherira Gaon (Arundel 51), the oldest
existing copy of this work (1189), which was edited by Dr. Neubauer in his
_Mediæval Jewish Chronicles_.
These examples will suffice to show the significance of the MSS.
collection of this Library. And the student may rest assured that in
whatever branch of Jewish thought he is interested, he will always find in
the Museum some Hebrew manuscript useful for his purpose.
I ought now to say a few words as to the value of this collection of
manuscripts. Now, if the work contained in a MS. has never been edited, as
for instance the Machzor Vitri(223) and so many others, its value is
established by the mere fact of its existence. For those who published
MSS. were not always guided by the best literary motives. And while they
published and republished many books of which one edition would have been
more than enough, many other works of the greatest importance for Jewish
literature and history remained in manuscript. As an instance, it will
suffice to mention here the Zohar, which has passed through twenty‐four
editions since the sixteenth century, whilst the earliest Jewish Midrash,
the _Pessikta de Rab Kahana_, had to linger in the libraries till the year
1868, when it was edited by Mr. S. Buber. Thus there are still many pearls
of Jewish literature which exist only in MS. Likewise most publishers were
careless in their choice of the manuscript from which our editions have
been prepared. Almost the whole of Jewish literature will have to be re‐
edited before a scientific study of it will be possible. But such critical
editions can only be obtained by the aid of the MSS. not yet made use of,
in which better readings are to be found. From this fact even those MSS.
the contents of which have been several times reprinted, as for instance
the MSS. of the Midrash _Rabbah_, gain the greatest literary importance.
And the more MSS. the editor of a work has at his disposal, the more
certain is he of being able to furnish us with a good text.
But even when the whole of Jewish literature lies before the student in
the best of texts, there will still remain a great charm about
manuscripts. Printed books, like the great mass of the modern society for
which they are prepared, are devoid of any originality. They interest us
only as classes, and it is very seldom that they have a story of their own
to tell. It is quite different with manuscripts, where the fact of their
having been produced by a living being invests them with a certain kind of
individuality. This is specially the case with Hebrew MSS., which were not
copied by men shut up in cloisters, but by sociable people living in the
world and sharing its joys and sorrows. Even women were employed in this
art, and I remember to have read in some MS. or catalogue a postscript by
the lady copyist, which, if I remember rightly, ran as follows: “I beseech
the reader not to judge me very harshly when he finds that mistakes have
crept into this work; for when I was engaged in copying it God blessed me
with a son, and thus I could not attend to my business properly.”
To be sure, some of these copyists were curious folk. Their mind as well
as that of the world around them must have been of a peculiar constitution
hardly conceivable to us. Take, for example, Benjamin, the copyist of a
certain Machzor in the Museum (Add. 11,639). This Machzor was written in
times of bitter persecution. The copyist, who was himself a learned man,
alludes in one place to the sufferings which the Jews in a certain French
town had to undergo in the year 1276. On one of them, the martyr R.
Samson, Benjamin the copyist composed a lamentation written in a most
mournful strain. But this lamentation is followed by a wine‐song, one of
the jolliest and wildest parodies for the feast of Purim.
Speaking of this Machzor I should like to remark that it forms one of the
greatest ornaments of the Museum. Besides including the whole of the
Pentateuch, the above‐mentioned Tarshish by R. Moses Ibn Ezra, and many
other smaller literary pieces which would require a small volume to
describe them properly, this MS. is most richly illuminated, and contains
very many illustrations. The subjects of these illustrations are biblical,
sometimes also apocryphal, such as—Adam and Eve in Paradise, Noah in the
Ark, Abraham meeting the angels, Sarah behind the door listening to the
conversation of her husband with his guests, Moses with the rod in his
hands dividing the Red Sea, Samson riding on the back of a lion, Solomon
on his throne, Daniel in the lion’s den, the king Ahasuerus holding out
the golden sceptre to Esther, Judith addressing Holofernes, the Leviathan,
the mythical bird Bar Yochni, and many other similar subjects. In passing
I recommend these illustrations and illuminations to the attention of the
artist as the most worthy examples of Jewish ecclesiastical art,—if there
is such a thing as a special Jewish art. The artist will find the Museum
best suited for this purpose, its collection being considered as the
richest of the kind. Besides this Machzor I must also allude to the
illuminated Bible (Or. 2226‐28) written in Lisbon for R. Judah Alchakin—it
is said to be one of the finest specimens of such works—and the
illuminated Mishneh Torah of Maimonides, executed for R. Joseph of the
famous Yachya family, also thought to be most artistically done. The
liturgies for the Passover Eve service will also offer to the artist a
rich harvest, especially Codex, Add. 27,210, which the wealthy Lady Rosa
Galico presented to her son‐in‐law on his wedding‐day, and Codex, Add.
14,762, even the binding of which is considered as an artistic curiosity.
Leaving now these marvels to the appreciation of the artist, the greatest
wonder which suggests itself to us is how the Jews could maintain such a
cultured taste in such unhappy times, and get the means of satisfying it.
These reflections about the owners present themselves the more strongly to
our mind when we meet with one of those old Jewish prayer‐books, which in
many cases formed the whole religious and literary treasure of the family.
In their fly‐leaves, in which the births and deaths of successive
generations are very often registered, the _spiritus familiaris_ seems to
be still haunting the pages. When you turn them over and see the service
for Passover Eve, are you not bound to think of the anxiety with which
these poor creatures engaged in this ceremony lest they might be attacked
suddenly by a fanatic mob? must you not ask how they could bear life under
such circumstances? And when you turn a few more pages and arrive at the
prayers read for the dead, must you not ask how did they die? Were they
perhaps burnt alive _ad majorem Dei gloriam_, or torn to pieces by a
“saintly mob”? Take again the illuminated copies of the Bible and the
Mishneh Torah, both of which were finished only a few years before the
great expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal, times when the earth
already “burnt under their feet, and the heaven was also very unkind to
them.” And nevertheless Jews were still, as these MSS. show us,
cultivating science and art. Another instance of such a devotion to
science in spite of the unfavourable times may be seen from a colophon to
Codex Or. 39. It contains the book _Nissim_, a philosophical treatise on
the fundamental teachings of Judaism, together with a philosophical
commentary on the Pentateuch by R. Nissim of Marseilles, a contemporary of
R. Solomon ben Adereth in the thirteenth century. The Museum copy was
written by R. Jacob, the son of David, who also added some annotations to
the book. At the end he says: “I have copied this book _Nissim_ for my own
use, that I may study in it, I and my children and my grandchildren.... I
have finished it to‐day, Sunday, the 28th of Ab, 5333 (1573), at Venice,
in the year of the expulsion which befell us on account of our sins.” Now,
only observe this poor R. Jacob, who has to go through all these horrors,
yet is still occupied in copying MSS. for his own pleasure, and in
meditating on the most complicated problems of philosophy and religion.
But it is not always stories of this heroic nature that the MSS. tell us.
They betray also very much of the instability of human affairs and their
weakness. You find in many copies the words that they must not “be sold or
given in mortgage.” But scarcely a generation has passed away, and they
are already in the possession of a new owner, who writes the same
injunction to be broken again by his children in their turn. In Codex
27,122, we find commendatory letters for a worthy poor man, who is so
unhappy as to have two grown‐up daughters, and not to have the means of
supplying them with marriage portions. Indeed, he must have been very
poor, not possessing even a book in his house, or else his troubles could
not have been so great. For in Codex Harl. 5702, we find the owner saying:
“To eternal memory that I have acquired this _Third Book of Avicena_ from
the hands of my father‐in‐law, R. Jekuthiel, as a part of my dowry.”
As a sign of human weakness I give the following two instances. There lies
before me a cabbalistic Codex (Add. 27,199), which acquired some notoriety
from the fact of its having been copied by the famous grammarian, R.
Elijah Levita, for his pupil Cardinal Aegidius. At the end of this MS. we
read: “I (Levita) have finished (the copying of) this book on Wednesday,
the day of Hoshana Rabba,(224) 5277 (1516), on which day I have seen my
head in the shadow of the moon. Praised be God (for it), for now I am sure
not to die in the following year.” These words relate to a well‐known
superstition, according to which, when a man is going to die in the course
of the next year his shadow disappears from him on the preceding Hoshana
Rabba. But is it not humiliating to see that the great Levita, who was
superior to many prejudices of his time, and taught Christians Hebrew, and
who denied the antiquity of the vowels in the Bible, which was considered
by the great majority of his contemporaries as a mortal heresy—is it not
humiliating to see this enlightened man trembling for his life on this
night, and anxiously observing his shadow? Another Codex lies before me
(Add. 17,053), containing the Novellæ to three tractates of the Talmud.
Its owner must accordingly have been a learned man. But in the fly‐leaf of
this MS. we read the following words: “Memorandum—Thursday, the 25th of
Sivan, 5295 (1535), I have taken an oath in the presence of R. David Ibn
Shushan and R. Moses de Castro, etc., not to play (cards) any more.” I
might perhaps suggest on this occasion that in our days when all sorts of
Judaisms are circulating, a cooking Judaism, a racing Judaism, a muscular
Judaism, and so many Judaisms more—it would be interesting to take up also
the subject of playing Judaism, and to write its history.
In conclusion I shall mention the colophon to Codex Harl. 5713, which may
have some interest for the English reader. It runs: “I have written it in
honour of the noble and pious, etc., Humphrey Wanley, the noble Librarian
of my Lord Treasurer. May his glory be increased. In the year 5474 (1714)
in the holy community of London, under the reign of the noble and happy
Queen Anne. May the Lord increase her splendour and glory.” The signature
of the copyist is “Aaron the son of Moses, born in the city of Navaschadok
in Poland.” By the way, we learn from this signature that the immigration
of Polish Jews into this country had already begun in the time of Queen
Anne, and perhaps still earlier.
Thus everything in a MS., the arrangement of the matter, the remarks of
the owners, the signature of the copyist, sets the reader thinking, and
contributes many a side‐light to the history of the Jews.
XI. TITLES OF JEWISH BOOKS