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ibliography
of Hebrew publications from various Italian cities, serve as a
transition to modern bibliography.
With the development of Jewish studies, Hebrew bibliography
became a scientific discipline in its own right. L. *Zunz’s
Zur Geschichte und Literatur (1845) contains a complete section
on bibliography (pp. 214–303), including material on the
dates found in books; on printers and typography in Mantua
from 1476 to 1662; and on Hebrew printing in Prague from
1513 to 1657. This work laid the foundation for modern Hebrew
bibliography. In 1849 Julius *Fuerst published the first
part of his Bibliotheca Judaica (3 vols., 1849–63). The book is
neither all-inclusive nor completely accurate, but it is important
in view of its comprehensiveness. It is arranged according
to author, commentator, editor, and publisher, with an alphabetical
index to the Hebrew works appended to the end
of the third volume. The format of each book is noted, and
sometimes the number of pages as well. The preceding bibliographies
are overshadowed by the works of Moritz *Steinschneider,
in particular by his Catalogus Librorum Hebraeorum
in Bibliotheca Bodleiana (1852–60) and Die hebraeischen
Uebersetzungen des Mittelalters (1893). These works set the
definitive standard for modern Jewish bibliography. Another
important bibliography is Isaac *Benjacob’s Oẓar ha-Sefarim,
(1877–80), listing Jewish books and manuscripts until 1863,
and published by the author’s son Jacob, together with notes
by Steinschneider. By the late 19th century Jewish bibliography,
comprising Jewish literature in all languages, had undergone
considerable development and today compares favorably with
general bibliography. Aaron *Walden, who followed Azulai
with the Shem ha-Gedolim he-Ḥadash (1864) included a section
entitled, “A Catalogue of Books,” which includes ḥasidic
works absent from earlier listings. However, this listing was
not done scientifically. William *Zeitlin, in his Kiryat Sefer,
Bibliotheca Hebraica post-Mendelssohniana (1891–95), listed
the works of the Haskalah movement to that date (more than
3,500 volumes). Ḥayyim David Lippe published a catalogue
called Asaf ha-Mazkir (1881–89), “a complete listing of all
the books, treatises, and Hebrew periodicals which appeared
during the period 1880–1887.” He also issued a follow-up catalogue,
Asaf ha-Mazkir he-Ḥadash… (1899), “listing all the
books, treatises, and periodicals which appeared during the
period 1882–1898.” From 1928 to 1931 H.D. *Friedberg published
his Beit Eked Sefarim, a bibliographical lexicon covering
the general field of Hebrew literature, with particular attention
to books written in Hebrew and Yiddish; but also including
works written in Italian, Latin, Greek, Spanish, Arabic, Persian,
and Samaritan, and printed in Hebrew characters from
1475–1900, with their general content, author, date, place of
publication, and number of pages. An expanded edition of this
work appeared in 1951–54. Though not truly scientific in its
approach, it is still very useful. The many, important studies
of Abraham Yaari include Meḥkerei Sefer (1958), containing
among its studies in Hebrew booklore a section on the catalogue
of Israel. M. *Kasher and Dov Mandelbaum compiled a
bibliography of works covering the years 500–1500 called Sa-
rei ha-Elef (1959). Important monographs and articles in the
field of Hebrew bibliography have been written by S. *Wiener,
I. *Sonne, S. *Seeligmann, D. *Chwolson, A. *Jellinek, A.M.
*Habermann, C. *Lieberman, A. *Marx, M. *Roest, G. *Kressel,
J. *Zedner, I. *Rivkind, S. Shunami, N. Ben-Menahem,
and others. The indispensable handbook today is S. Shunami’s
Bibliography of Jewish Bibliographies (1936, 19652; repr. 1969,
with supplement) which also includes sections on Jewish and
Modern Hebrew literature (nos. 1146–1240; 4875–85) as well as
on Judeo-German and Yiddish (nos. 1241–1357; 4586–95). In
1960 the Hebrew University, in cooperation with Mosad Bialik
and the Ministry of Education and Culture, initiated the
Institute for Hebrew Bibliography under the direction of N.
Ben-Menahem. Its aim is to compile a definitive bibliographical
listing of every Hebrew book which has been published up
to 1960 (specimen brochure, 1964).
The first scholar to publish a special periodical devoted
to Hebrew and Jewish bibliography was Steinschneider: Ha-
Mazkir, Hebraeische Bibliographie, Blaetter fuer neuere und
aeltere Literatur des Judenthums (HB, 1858–65, 1869–82). Nehemiah
*Bruell continued Steinschneider’s project in the bimonthly
Centralanzeiger fuer juedische Literatur (1890) but
succeeded in publishing it only during one year (6 issues). At
the same time M. *Kayserling published his bibliographical
dictionary of Spanish and Portuguese works on Judaism and
Jews (the Biblioteca española-portugueza judaica, 1890). A few
years later the Zeitschrift fuer Hebraeische Bibliographie (ZHB;
1896–1921) appeared. The editor of volumes 1–3 was H. Brody;
volumes 4–9 were edited jointly by Brody and A. Freimann;
and the remaining volumes appeared under the editorship of
Freimann alone. The two great authorities on the bibliography
of Anglo-Jewish history are C. Roth’s Magna Bibliotheca
Anglo-Judaica (1937), and R.P. *Lehmann’s Nova Bibliotheca
Anglo-Judaica (1961), the latter dealing with the years 1937–60.
The most important contemporary bibliographical journal is
Kirjat Sepher (KS), a quarterly published since 1924 under the
auspices of the Jewish National and University Library. Editors
during the first two years were S.H. Bergmann and H.
Pick, and after that I.B. Joel. Since 1953 a new bibliographical
magazine, Studies in Bibliography and Booklore (SBB), has
been published by the Hebrew Union College Library, Cincinnati.
The Jewish Book Annual (JBA; founded in 1942) published
in New York also contains useful bibliographical material.
Of Jewish bibliographic periodicals whose life-span was
limited, the following deserve mention: En Hakore, edited by
D.A. Friedman and Z. *Woyslawski, three issues (Berlin, 1923);
Soncino-Blaetter, Beitraege zur Kunde des juedischen Buches,
edited by H. *Meyer (3 vols., Berlin, 1925–30); and Journal of
Jewish Bibliography, a quarterly edited by Joshua *Bloch (New
York, 1938–43).
The first bookdealers’ catalogue of secondhand Hebrew
books was published in Amsterdam around 1640 by Manasseh
Ben Israel, but no copy is now extant (cf. Roth in Aresheth, 2,
413–4). In 1652 his son Samuel published Catalogo de los Libros
que Semuel ben Israel Soeiro vende, estampados todos na
682 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3