Chief library and museum of the United Kingdom. It contains many books and objects of Jewish interest.
The Hebrew MSS.:
The Hebrew manuscripts in the British Museum already fully catalogued or briefly described number about 1,200. This total includes fifty recently assigned to fragments belonging to the collection brought from Cairo. Between eighty and a hundred additional ones are likely to be obtained from the remainder of the same interesting collection. There are also thirty Hebrew charters (business deeds of the Anglo-Norman period) in the Museum; and if the seventy-one Samaritan manuscripts and the very ancient Aramaic papyrus (marked cvi.
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, 2d century
Of these over 1,050 are briefly described in the "Descriptive List of Hebrew and Samaritan MSS. in the British Museum," which appeared in 1893. A rough classification into subjects shows that in the total just mentioned Biblical texts are represented by 165 numbers; Biblical commentaries by 175; Midrashim and Midrashic discourses by 45; Talmud and Halakah by 190; liturgies by 115; cabalistic manuscripts by 130; ethics, philosophy, and poetry by an aggregate of 84; philology, mathematics, and astronomy by 75; medicine by 20; miscellaneous manuscripts by 73; charters by 30; and Samaritan literature by 64. The later acquisitions may be assumed to show a similar proportion of subjects, with the very notable additions, however, of a large number of letters and other historical documents forming part of the collection brought from the Cairo Genizah .
Sources of the Collection.The distribution of Hebrew manuscripts among the earlier Museum collections is as follows: The Sloane and Harley collections, which formed the nucleus of the British Museum at its opening in 1753, respectively contained twelve and ninety-five Hebrew manuscript volumes. The Old Royal Library, presented to the Museum by King George II. in 1757, included seven Hebrew numbers. A like contingent was contributed by the great library collected by Thomas Howard, earl of Arundel, Surrey, and Norfolk. Three Hebrew manuscripts were presented (together with a much larger number of printed books; see below) by Solomon da Costa in 1759, and two other numbers of the collection have been filled up with his own catalogue of the printed books and manuscripts thus presented. The Lansdowne collection (purchased in 1807) and the library formed by King George III. (presented to the nation by King George IV. in 1823) contained one Hebrew volume each; and the Egerton collection (bequeathed in 1829) included three Hebrew numbers.
Of the 520 Hebrew volumes embodied in what is known as the Additional Series of manuscripts, no less than 323 came from the famous collection of Joseph Almanzi; and the few Hebrew manuscripts which form part of the Rich collection (acquired in 1829) are also included in the total of 520 just mentioned. The series which followed the Additional, and into which fresh acquisitions are now constantly being incorporated, is the Oriental. The latter now contains about 550 Hebrew numbers. A large proportion of these (not less than 260 volumes) was purchased from M. W. Shapiro between the years 1877 and 1883. The rest came to the Museum in smaller consignments through the agency of the late Fischel Hirsch and other booksellers.
The sources from which the Museum collection became from time to time enriched also include manuscriptspurchased at the duke of Sussex's sale in 1844; the collection of ten important Biblical manuscripts which were in the possession of the families of Schultens, John van der Hagen, and Dr. Adam Clarke successively; four Megillah scrolls once the property of Sir Moses Montefiore; and several numbers formerly owned by Dr. Adolf Neubauer, Dr. C. D. Ginsburg, F. D. Mocatta, and S. J. A. Churchill (British consul at Teheran).
It will now be useful to note some of the more important features of the collection, and in doing so the classified order adopted in the "Descriptive List" published in 1893 will be followed.
Of the charters it need only be said that they nearly all belong to the thirteenth century (some few being earlier), and that besides throwing some light on the circumstances of the time immediately preceding the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290, they give a good idea of Anglo-Hebrew caligraphy of the time.
The latest noteworthy addition to the interesting and important Samaritan collection is a fine copy of the Samaritan liturgy, dated 1258
The collection of Hebrew printed books in the Museum now consists of about 15,000 volumes. Of these upward of 10,100 are described in Zedner's "Catalogue of the Hebrew Books in the Library of the British Museum," published in 1867, and the greater part of the remainder are entered in S. Van Straalen's "Catalogue of Hebrew Books in the British Museum Acquired During the Years 1868-92."
The distribution of volumes among the more important classes of books described in Zedner's catalogue is as follows: Bibles, 1,200 volumes; commentaries on the Bible, 510; Talmud, 730; commentaries on the Talmud, 700; codes of law, 1,260; grammars and dictionaries, 450; poetry and criticism, 770.
Of the 4,650 volumes described in Van Straalen's catalogue the greater part was published within the last fifty years. This large contingent is rich in specimens of works in the Judæo-German dialect, and in modern Hebrew belles-lettres, such as the publications of Mapu, Smolenskin, Gordon, and Lebensohn, and also Hebrew translations of works by Shakespeare, Milton, Schiller, Lessing, and other European writers. The numbers of volumes to be assigned to the classes mentioned above must, therefore, necessarily be smaller in proportion than those given in connection with Zedner's catalogue.
Printed Books, Whence Acquired.The history of the acquisition of the printed books is naturally not so varied as that of the manuscripts. In 1753, when the Museum was first opened to the public, the editio princeps of the Talmud was the only Hebrew work in the collection, forming part of the royal library presented by King George II. But Solomon da Costa, a Jewish merchant who had immigrated from Holland, and whose name has already been mentioned above in the account of the manuscripts, presented to the Museum in the same year a collection of no less than 180 volumes, containing some of the most valuable works of Rabbinic literature. From the preface to Zedner's catalogue we further learn that "during the succeeding eighty-nine years the Hebrew books increased to about 600." But the great importance of the Hebrew library dates from the year 1848; for it was then enriched by the addition of 4,420 volumes purchased from the famous collection of H. J. Michael of Hamburg. "This acquisition gave," to use the words of the preface of 1867 just mentioned, "an impetus to this branch of the library, which has been constantly maintained" ever since, "and has resulted in making the national collection of Hebrew books the largest in the world."
The next notable addition to the library came from the collection of the late Joseph Almanzi, which had first passed into the hands of Asher of Berlin, and from which the trustees of the British Museum were able to select such works as were not already in the Museum library. The books acquired since that time came to the Museum gradually through the ordinary medium of booksellers, among whom the late Fischel Hirsch of Berlin was one of the most frequently employed.
The list of early printed books and other rare works in the collection is a pretty large one. The following statement relates to the books described in Mr. Zedner's catalogue:
It has already been stated that the greater number of books described in Van Straalen's catalogue wereprinted in recent times. The proportion of early books must, therefore, be necessarily small. There are, however, to be noticed such works as Jacob b. Asher's code, printed at Mantua in 1476 (with MS. notes by G. B. de Rossi); the Pentateuch, printed at Bologna in 1482 (also with MS. notes by De Rossi); the Talmudical tractate Beẓah, printed at Soncino in 1483; the Pentateuch, printed at Faro in 1487; the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah, printed at Lisbon in 1492.
It may finally be mentioned that the trustees recently acquired a rather curious copy of the Talmudical tractate Ketubot which probably belongs to the sixteenth century, and appears to have been printed at Salonica. It is specially noteworthy that the foliation of this copy differs from the uniform arrangement adopted in the editions generally.
The antiquities contained in the Museum also include many objects of Jewish interest, notably a fine series of ancient Jewish coins in the department of coins and medals.
Categories: [Jewish encyclopedia 1906]