NYPL, Spencer Collection

Book of Jonah from the Xanten Bible by Joseph ben Kalonymus (Xanten, 1294).

Profiat Duran, the Spanish Jewish scholar of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, observed:

One should always contemplate beautiful books with splendid decorations, fine calligraphy, parchment and bindings ... The contemplation of pleasing forms, beautiful images and drawings broadens and stimulates the mind and strengthens its faculties. And this matter is not just appropriate but obligatory, namely, to adorn the Holy Books and to pay attention to their beauty, splendor and aesthetic quality. For just as God wanted to beautify His Holy Place with gold, silver, jewels and precious stones so [should it] be properly done with His Holy Books. (Ma ‘aseh Efod, p. 19)

Jewish scholars who compiled catalogs in the nineteenth century paid scant attention to the illuminations in Hebrew manuscripts, and it was only at the turn of the present century that they began to be studied. Even Christian medieval miniatures were not highly valued until about 1850. Manuscript illuminations were dismissed as "rude monkish drawings which reflected the barbarity of the age."

NYPL, Dorot Jewish Division Kol nidre from the Padua Ashkenazi Mahzor copied by David bar Pesah (Germany, 14th century).

NYPL, Dorot Jewish Division Ha-poteah lanu shaare rahamim (Shaharit of Yom Kippur) from the Padua Ashkenazi Mahzor (Germany, 14th century).

NYPL, Dorot Jewish Division Shushan emek uyamah (Kerovah for shaharit of Yom Kippur) from the Padua Ashkenazi Mahzor (Germany, 14th century).

The collections of the British Library, Bodleian Library and Biblioteca Palatina
The three greatest collections of Hebrew manuscripts, especially illuminated manuscripts, are undoubtedly those of the British Library in London, the Bodleian Library in Oxford, and the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma.

	Ready Reference
	British Library Bodleian Library The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia.

The richest of these, of approximately seventy-five illuminated manuscripts, is that of the British Library, which began with the bequests of Jewish as well as non-Jewish donors. The first Earl of Oxford, Robert Harley (1661-1724), a Whig and Governor of the South Sea Company, and Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753), a wealthy physician, were among the early benefactors. Another was the broker and gabbai of Bevis Marks synagogue, Solomon da Costa Athias (1690-1769), who bequeathed manuscripts to the British Library with the following letter:

Thus saith Solomon, son of the humble, pious and honored Isaac da Costa, surnamed Athias, late of the City of Amsterdam, deceased, one of the people called Jews which are scattered among the nations and from among that part of the captives of Jerusalem which settled in Spain. I have dwelt 54 years and upwards, with security, advantage and ease of mind in this renowned metropolis, eminent above all others for the number, valor, freedom, commerce, knowledge, ingenuity, politeness and humility of its inhabitants ... whereas a most stately monument hath been lately erected and endowed by the wisdom and munificence of the British legislature ... an house abounding in books, old and new, written and printed, and in the choicest curiosities both natural and artificial, with intent to preserve the same to succeeding generations in benefit to the people of these nations and of the whole earth ... as a small token of my esteem, love, reverence and gratitude, to this magnanimous nation and as a thanksgiving offering in part, for the generous protection and numberless blessings which I enjoyed under it.

Another major acquisition was the library of the Duke of Sussex (1774-1843), the sixth son of King George III. In 1823 King George IV presented the library started by George III, who had bought the collection of Joseph Smith, the British consul in Venice. Some finely illuminated Hebrew manuscripts are to be found in these contributions.

In 1865 the collection of Joseph Almanzi (1801-60), a noted linguist and Hebrew poet, was added. It was this acquisition in particular that placed the British Library's collection in the forefront of outstanding Judaica collections. Many of Almanzi's books had been acquired from Rabbi ayyim Joseph David Azulai (1724-1807), a well-known bibliographer and talmudist. In 1882, M.W. Shapira (1830-84), a Polish convert to Christianity who had settled in Jerusalem, sold to the British Museum a choice collection of Karaite and Yemenite manuscripts. A colorful character, he was also a missionary and a notorious dealer in spurious antiquities. A large part of the collection of Dr. Moses Gaster, Haham of the Sephardic community of London and principal of Judith Lady Montefiore College, which contains some fine illuminated Hebrew manuscripts, was purchased in 1924.

NYPL, Dorot Jewish Division Bookplate of Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex.

NYPL, Dorot Jewish Division Autograph letter signed by Hayyim Joseph David Azulai.

NYPL, Dorot Jewish Division David ben Abraham Oppenheimer, from Abbildungen boehmischer und maehrischer Gelehrten und Kuenstler (Prague, 1773).

The Bodleian Library in Oxford is another repository of outstanding illuminated Hebrew manuscripts, a key portion of which consists of the library of David ben Abraham Oppenheim (or Oppenheimer) (1664-1736), acquired in 1829. Oppenheim was a leading rabbi, liturgist and bibliophile who had inherited a sizable fortune. When he became Chief Rabbi of Prague in 1702, he left his extensive library with his father-in-law in Protestant Hanover, since he feared that the Holy Office might confiscate his books. After his death the library passed from member to member of the Oppenheim family, eventually being pawned with a senator in Hamburg and stored away in twenty-eight cases. To facilitate its sale, special catalogs were printed, but the various attempts to sell the library were unsuccessful. Although the Oppenheim collection was valued at £22,000 by the noted savant Moses Mendelssohn, this library of some 780 Hebrew manuscripts was finally obtained by the Bodleian Library for the trifling sum of £2,000. Another major acquisition, in 1853, was the library of Rabbi Isaac Samuel Reggio (1784-1855), a prominent Italian scholar. A prolific writer, he was also the founder of the rabbinical college at Padua. A significant collection of some 860 Hebrew manuscripts was purchased in 1848 from the Hamburg bibliophile Heimann Joseph Michael (1792-1846). In 1869 the Bodleian Library acquired manuscripts from the collection of Samuel David Luzzatto (1800-65), a brilliant Italian philologist, poet, and biblical exegete.

NYPL, Dorot Jewish Division Autograph collation of the Padua Ashkenazi Mahzor compiled and signed by Samuel David Luzzatto (Padua, 1848).

NYPL, Dorot Jewish Division Autograph collation found in the Padua Ashkenazi Mahzor compiled and signed by Samuel David Luzzatto (Padua, 1848).

Other Hebrew manuscripts in the Bodleian Library came from the collections of William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury; John Selden, legal historian and Orientalist; Dr. Edward Pococke, chaplain at Aleppo; Robert Huntington, a seventeenth-century bishop of Raphoe in Ireland; and Matteo Luigi Canonici, an eighteenth-century Italian collector.

The magnificent Kennicott Bible in the Bodleian Library, reproduced in facsimile in 1985, came from Dr. Benjamin Kennicott (1718-83), an English divine and keeper of the Radcliffe Library, who spent a lifetime researching biblical manuscripts. The manuscript, written and illustrated in 1476 in La Coruña in northwest Spain, contains 77 full-page miniatures.

The Biblioteca Palatina in Parma holds an outstanding collection brought together by Giovanni Bernardo de Rossi (1742-1831), a Christian professor of Oriental languages at the University of Parma. Among his 1,430 Hebrew manuscripts were some splendid illuminated books. The de Rossi library was purchased in 1816 and donated to the Biblioteca Palatina by the duchess of Parma, Marie Louise of Austria.

Other remarkable collections

NYPL, Dorot Jewish Division

Portrait of Abraham Firkovitch from his Avne Zikaron (Vilnius, 1872).

Another fine collection of outstanding illuminated Hebrew manuscripts was that of the great Hungarian scholar David Kaufmann (1852-99). Kaufmann acquired most of his books through the purchase in 1895 of the library of Marco Mortara (1815-94), an Italian rabbi and bibliographer. His splendid illuminated Hebrew manuscripts came from the purchase of the library of Gabriel Trieste (1784-1860), an Italian merchant and philanthropist. Kaufmann's valuable collection was donated in 1905 to the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest.

In nineteenth-century Russia, two Jewish scholars, David Guenzburg (1857-1910) and Abraham Firkovitch (1786-1874), built magnificent collections of illuminated Hebrew manuscripts, which are now in the Russian State Library in Moscow and the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg respectively.

Among the early Jewish collectors were Samuel ha-Nagid, the distinguished eleventh-century statesman from Granada, Spain, and Isaac Abravanel, the fifteenth-century Spanish Jewish statesman and scholar, whose son Samuel continued the tradition of his father. The da Pisa and Volterra families in Renaissance Italy had fine collections of Hebrew manuscripts. The Finzi family of fifteenth-century Italy had a library of some 200 books. In the seventeenth century, Rabbi Manasseh ben Israel of Amsterdam had a collection of Hebrew manuscripts.

	Discussion
	Hebrew manuscripts are treasured for many different reasons, including their religious value, artistic quality and historical significance. If you were a collector of Hebrew manuscripts, what characteristics would you seek when making acquisitions?

Hebrew manuscripts have also been in the collections of non-Jews from the medieval period on. In Augsburg, Germany, Johann Jakob Fugger (1516-75) had an excellent collection, including the earliest illuminated Hebrew manuscript from Germany. A commentary on the Bible, it was made in the Würzburg region in 1233. After Fugger, who came from the noted banking family, failed in the banking business, his friend Herzog Albrecht V of Bavaria purchased the library and bequeathed it to the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich. Johann's brother Ulrich (1526-84) had moved from his native Augsburg to Heidelberg in 1564, taking his extensive library with him. Upon his death, his library, including 175 Hebrew manuscripts, passed to the Palatine Library. When Protestant Heidelberg was captured in 1623 by the troops of Maximilian of Bavaria, the great Palatine Library was given to the pope and thus became the property of the Vatican Library.

In the eighteenth century, Baron Hüpsch of Cologne owned the well-known Darmstadt Haggadah, which has twice been reproduced in facsimile and is now in the Hessische Landes- and Hochschulbibliothek in Darmstadt, Germany. This famous manuscript was thought to have been lost during World War II, but was discovered in the German Museum of Leatherwork in Offenbach. Curiously, the Nazis had put the manuscript on display in 1941 because of its finely crafted fifteenth-century leather binding. The public visiting this museum never suspected that a Passover Haggadah lay beneath its leather cover.

The Sarajevo Haggadah, also reproduced twice in facsimile, was hidden from the Nazis in 1941 by the director of the Sarajevo National Museum. The Worms Mazor, illuminated in Germany in 1272, was similarly saved by the director of the Worms Cultural Institute. Since 1957 it has rested in the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem.

The Nazis were not the first to covet Hebrew manuscripts. The beautiful illuminated Canon of Medicine of Avicenna, now in the Bologna University Library, was one of many Hebrew manuscripts Napoleon carried off to Paris in 1796; along with other Hebrew manuscripts, it was retrieved in 1815.

Cardinal Richelieu, King Louis XIV, King Henry IV, and Catherine de Médicis in France had collections which included illuminated Hebrew manuscripts; these are now in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

In England, clergymen such as Bishop William Bedell had collections that included illuminated Hebrew manuscripts; Bedell's are now in Emmanuel College in Cambridge.

NYPL, Print Collection Etching of Manasseh ben Israel(?) by Rembrandt van Rijn (Amsterdam, 1636).

NYPL, Dorot Jewish Division Bookplate of David Solomon Sassoon.

While it is difficult to ascertain the history of ownership of many illuminated Hebrew manuscripts, we do have the testimony of two avid collectors of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. David Solomon Sassoon (1882-1942), whose family had a mercantile empire that stretched from China to England, was a man of great learning. He tells us that

the study of, and search for, the owners of our manuscripts, may throw light on the wanderings of Hebrew manuscripts from country to country and from continent to continent. Many manuscripts written in Europe came via Asia or Africa back to this continent ... many instances can be adduced of Hebrew manuscripts in Spain finding their way to Baghdad.

Most interesting is the story of the Fari Bible, one of the most beautiful Catalan manuscripts illuminated in fourteenth-century Spain. Sassoon remarks:

By a mere accident I overheard a conversation between travellers on a boat, whereby I first became aware of the fact that the Fari Bible was still available and likely to be sold. My first journey to Aleppo (1913) gave me the opportunity to increase my collection. Through personal information, obtained twelve years previously, and through references ... my attention was drawn to the magnificent [Fari Bible] in the possession of the distinguished Fari family, who lived first in Damascus, and later in Aleppo [Hayyim Mu{A145}Allim Fari (ca. 1750-1820) served as minister to the Pasha of Syria]. Having tried without success for more than a decade to procure that MS through correspondence, I decided to go in person. [Having] arrived in Aleppo, it was only with the greatest difficulty that I was enabled to have a look at the work of Elisha Crescas, the scribe and illuminator of this [fourteenth-century] Bible. Ultimately [in 1913] procured the MS.

The boat on which we travelled weighed anchor at Port Said. Whilst [Sassoon] was waiting there, a local Jewish pedlar boarded the boat with his usual merchandise of beads and feathers ... Soon I entered into a conversation with this stall-holder, and to my surprise, I learned that he was the owner of a Hebrew MS. I was anxious to see this book, and we arranged that while he went to fetch it I should sell his goods. After about three hours he returned with a beautifully written Sefardi prayer book for weekdays and the eve of Sabbath, dating most probably from the early fifteenth century, and illuminated throughout with arabesques and other designs. The owner was happy to sell it to me before we left port and was grateful to see how much had been sold at his stall.

Another Jewish collector was Elkan Nathan Adler, an English lawyer, many of whose books were acquired in 1923 by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He informs us that in book collecting,

like all hunts, an element of sport enters into it, and one's gambling instincts are undoubtedly stimulated. You must adapt your tactics to the environment in which you find yourself. It is no good to apply the same manoeuvres in attempting to ferret out a rubbish heap in Aleppo that one would employ while treasure-seeking in the ghettos of Northern Italy.

The history of illuminated Hebrew manuscript collections is still largely unexplored. It is hoped that this seminar will stimulate further inquiry.