YIDDISH MANUSCRIPTS IN THE BRITISH LIBRARY

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Another Passover Haggadah on vellum, Sloane MS. 3173 (Margoliouth no. 612) dated 1740 (as was Add. MS. 18724) and known as the Leipnik Haggadah, is one of the most beautifully written and decorated Hebrew manuscripts of the eighteenth century '' 1 he text proper of this liturgy is, of course, in Hebrew and Aramaic, but the 'rubrical directions as Margoliouth calls them are in Yiddish and Ladino (and occasionally also in Hebrew). On the second folio we are specifically told that minhag shel ha-'ashkenazm mi-tsadyamin ('the Ashkenazic rite is on the right side') and minhag sefaradt mi-tsad senwl ('the Sefardic rite is on the left side'). As in Add. MS. 18724 (Margoliouth no 611), we have the Yiddish translations of the Passover songs Adir hu, Ehad miyode'a and Hadgadya (see plate IV).'' The illumination is the work of Joseph ben David of Leipnik, a native of Moravia, who is regarded as the leading figure among the Hamburg circle of illuminators, a branch of the dominant eighteenth-century Bohemian-Moravian school. Joseph of Leipnik produced his beautiful illuminated manuscripts for the wealthy few, and few today see these rare artifacts. It is to be hoped that a facsimile of this exceptional example of eighteenth-century illumination will be prepared in the not-too-distant future, such as has already been done for its 'sister' Haggadah held in the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana, Amsterdam.^^ Another very charming eighteenth-century decorated Hebrew manuscript, containing some Yiddish text, is Or. MS. 12983, at present on display in the King's Library. Known as Perek Shirah ('Chapter of Song'), this early medieval tract is 'a hymn to the Creator, in which all beings express their praise in appropriate Biblical phrases. The Hebrew text in square characters is accompanied by a Yiddish translation, in the so-called vaybertaytsh characters, all in an anonymous hand. Written on vellum, this manuscript of the work is divided into fv\t sections, each containing a water-colour illustration of the creatures mentioned, probably by an artist of the Moravian school. '^' Among the Yiddish manuscripts notable for their calligraphy, one should also mention Or. MS. 10330 (Gaster no. 1061), Kitser likute tsvi beloshn taytsh [Kitsur likute Jsevi bileshon taytsh], a digest of liturgical readings dated 1833 at Leeuwarden (Friesland),^^ and the sixteenth-century (or earlier) Yiddish translation of the Mahzor, Or. MS. 10735 (Gaster no. 722), written by two hands. ETHICS One of the oldest Yiddish manuscripts in the British Library is Add. MS. 27204 (Margoliouth no. 874), an early sixteenth-century recension of the anonymous ethical tract Seyfer mides [Sefer midot], otherwise known as Orkhes tsadikim [Orhot tsadikim]. Probably composed in Germany in the fifteenth century, this work became a popular classic of traditional Jewish literature in both Yiddish and Hebrew versions: the shorter version in Yiddish was first printed in Isny in 1542 (this edition is not held in the British Library), and the longer version in Hebrew was first printed in Prague in 1581.^® The question of the possible priority of the Yiddish recension, especially in light of a sentence in the introduction to the manuscript (drum hobin mir doz seyfer mides in taytsh gimakht\ 86
;^. /. Decorated title-page of the Yiddish ethical tract known as Libes hrif Germany, copied 1777; ink on paper. Or. MS. 10668
Page 1 and 2: YIDDISH MANUSCRIPTS IN THE BRITISH
Page 3 and 4: BIBLE AND HOMILETICS The earliest r
Page 5: no. 1049]), to which attention will
Page 9 and 10: GRAMMAR AND LEXICOGRAPHY The Gaster
Page 11 and 12: PLATE III Opening of the penitentia
Page 13 and 14: certain importance in the Gaster Co
Page 15 and 16: Horowitz's Shol hameylekh: a biblis
Page 17 and 18: Or. 9999 Gaster ^ Or. ioooo Gaster
Page 19 and 20: (ed.), The Field of Yiddish: Studie
Page 21 and 22: Judischer Sprach-Meister, oder Hebr
Page 23 and 24: succession of Museum and Library cu
Page 25 and 26: thesis. The Hebrew University, Jeru
Page 27 and 28: appears to have been widely perceiv
Page 29 and 30: written either in Hebrew, which peo

YIDDISH MANUSCRIPTS IN THE BRITISH LIBRARY

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