JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

sua Typographia, adjuntos os preços, para que cada qual saibo o
que valem. In this catalogue 65 books are noted together with
their prices in Dutch currency. The earliest known auction sale
catalogues are those of the libraries of two Amsterdam rabbis,
Moses Raphael *d’Aguilar (1680) and Isaac *Aboab da Fonseca
(1693). The only earlier commercial listings of Hebrew books
are in manuscript form, such as some found in the Genizah,
or the catalogue of Hebrew books printed in Venice prior to
1542, which came into the possession of Konrad Gesner and
appeared in his Pandectarum sive partitionum universalium
libri xxi (20 vols., Zurich 1548–49; cf. ZHB, 10 (1906), 38–42).
A catalogue of books compiled for business purposes was
printed as an appendix to the collection of responsa by Joseph
ibn Lev (vol. 4, Fuerth, 1692). Another commercial book
listing, called Appiryon Shelomo, was published in 1730 by
Solomon Proops, printer and bookdealer of Amsterdam. The
advance in the field of Hebrew bibliography resulted in the
publication of improved commercial catalogues (see *Booktrade).
A number of these newer catalogues are of definite scientific
value such as those of M. *Roest, R.N.N. Rabinowitz,
L. Schwager and D. Fraenkel, J. Kauffmann, N.W. Bamberger
and Wahrmann, Rosenthal (Munich, Oxford), and others. In
addition, the detailed catalogues of such libraries as those of
Oxford, Amsterdam, Leiden, Leningrad, Frankfurt, the British
Museum, and the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, have proved
extremely useful.
[Abraham Meir Habermann]
In 1975 Shunami published a supplement to the second edition
of his Bibliography of Jewish Bibliographies (1965). The
500-page supplement contains information on over 2,000
bibliographies published between 1965 and 1975. In his introduction
Shunami notes that this number compares with that
for the first hundred years of the Wissenchaft des Judentums.
He comments on the rapid growth of bibliographies relating
to the Holocaust and to the State of Israel. On the other
hand, the small number of entries related to Hebrew printing
is a reflection of the decline of study of this subject with little
extra interest having been aroused by the 500th anniversary
of Hebrew printing. There is also a decrease in entries relating
to private collections, reflecting a decline in major Jewish
book collectors. Shunami also decries the shortage of Jewish
bibliographers.
Bibliography: S. Brisman, History and Guide to Judaic Bibliography
(1977); C. Roth, in: Jewish Studies in Memory of Israel Abrahams
(1927), 384–93; Shunami, Bibl, xiv–xv (Eng.), 7ff.; Urbach, in:
KS, 15 (1938/39), 237–9; Assaf, ibid., 18 (1941/42), 272–81; Yaari, ibid.,
21 (1944/45), 192–203; Zulay, ibid., 25 (1948/49), 203–5; Sonne, in:
SBB, 1 (1953–54), 55–76; Aloni, in: Sefer Assaf (1953), 33–39; idem, in:
Aresheth, 1 (1958), 44–60.
BIBLIOPHILES. Little is known about private book collectors
in antiquity and in the early Middle Ages. It might be
assumed, however, that patrons of learning, such as *Hisdai
ibn Shaprut, collected important Hebrew and other books.
Historical sources refer to the library of *Samuel ha-Nagid.
bibliophiles
Judah ibn *Tibbon’s advice on how to care for a library is well
known. Unfortunately, little is known about the titles of the
books making up his collection. Several book lists, some compiled
for auctions after the owner’s death, were found in the
Cairo *Genizah, the best known being that of R. *Abraham
b. Samuel he-Ḥasid. His collection consisted of 27 Hebrew
books and a number of volumes on medicine, probably in
Arabic. The most remarkable of known medieval Jewish book
collectors was the world traveler and physician Judah Leon
*Mosconi of Majorca. His library included Hebrew and Arabic
books in many branches of learning. Two catalogues have
been preserved, one of them drawn up for the auction after his
death in 1377. The king of Aragon ultimately canceled the sale
and seized the library for himself. In Renaissance Italy there
were many enthusiastic book collectors, such as *Menahem b.
Aaron of Volterra (15th century), whose library is now in the
Vatican. The library of Solomon *Finzi, son of the Mantuan
scientist Mordecai (Angelo) *Finzi, contained 200 volumes,
at that time a number considered worthy of a great humanist.
Elijah *Capsali, a Cretan scholar of the 16th century, possessed
a famous collection of Hebrew manuscripts, now at the
Vatican. The largest Jewish library in the Renaissance period
was that built up in successive generations by the family of
Da *Pisa. They were outdone in the 17th century by Abraham
Joseph Solomon *Graziano, rabbi of Modena, who wrote the
initials of his name ish ger (רג שיא) in vast numbers of books
now scattered in Jewish libraries throughout the world. His
contemporary Joseph Solomon *Delmedigo, a physician who
traveled widely, boasted that he collected no fewer than 4,000
volumes, on which he had expended the vast sum of 10,000
(florins?). Doubtless, many of these were in languages other
than Hebrew.
The first printed sale catalogues of private Hebrew libraries
emerged in Holland in the 17th century, for example,
the one printed for the disposal of the collections of Moses
Raphael d’*Aguilar, the earliest such publication known to Jewish
booklore, and that of Isaac *Aboab da Fonseca’s collection,
comprising about 500 volumes, many in Spanish, French, and
even Greek and Latin, including some classics and the writings
of the Church Fathers. Other book collectors of that period
in Amsterdam were *Manasseh Ben Israel and Samuel Abbas.
One of the greatest Jewish book collectors of any period was
David *Oppenheim, rabbi of Prague, who in 1688 compiled
the first catalogue of his collection, comprising the 480 books
he owned at the time. Ultimately, he acquired 4,500 printed
works in addition to 780 manuscripts, possibly the most important
Jewish library in private ownership that has ever been
assembled. It was purchased in 1829 by the Bodleian Library
in Oxford. The Italian Catholic abbé Giovanni Bernardo
de’*Rossi, a Hebrew scholar of repute and a book collector of
genius, had opportunities in Italy that were unequaled elsewhere.
His great collection of Hebrew manuscripts, catalogued
by him and including several superb illuminated codices, is
now housed at the Palatine Library in Parma, having been
acquired after his death by the ruler of that petty principal-
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 683