Description
Book SynopsisRepresenting four centuries of collecting and 1,000 years of Jewish history, this book brings together extraordinary Hebrew manuscripts and rare books from the Bodleian Library and Oxford colleges. Highlights of the collections include a fragment of Maimonides’ autograph draft of the 'Mishneh Torah'; the earliest dated fragment of the Talmud, exquisitely illuminated manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible; stunning festival prayerbooks and one of the oldest surviving Jewish seals in England. Lavishly illustrated essays by experts in the field bring to life the outstanding works contained in the collections, as well as the personalities and diverse motivations of their original collectors, who include Archbishop William Laud, John Selden, Edward Pococke, Robert Huntington, Matteo Canonici, Benjamin Kennicott and Rabbi David Oppenheim. Saved for posterity by religious scholarship, intellectual rivalry and political ambition, these extraordinary collections also bear witness to the consumption and circulation of knowledge across the centuries, forming a social and cultural history of objects moved across borders, from person to person. Together, they offer a fascinating journey through Jewish intellectual and social history from the tenth century onwards.
Trade Review"
Jewish Treasures from Oxford Libraries [is] a handsome volume of coffee-table size. . . . After the shuttering of physical libraries during the pandemic, and as library budgets continue to shrink, it is right and good to remember the debt of gratitude we owe the great libraries and librarians for preserving our historical treasures—not to mention all those who brought this fine book into being." * Jewish Review of Books *
"Today, one of the greatest collections of Jewish books in the world happens to reside in the Bodleian Library, the main research library of the University of Oxford. Although the library’s two largest bequests of Hebrew books came from Jewish collectors, many of the most precious Hebrew manuscripts were donated or sold to the Bodleian by Christian collectors. . . . In the most fascinating feature of
Jewish Treasures—a feature never before attempted in a comparable volume about a collection of Jewish books—each of the work’s seven central chapters relates the story of one of the Bodleian’s Hebrew collections and, even more interestingly, the career of the collector behind it." * Mosaic Magazine *
"A gorgeous book... Organized by chapters telling the stories of their Jewish and more often Christian collectors, it discusses, and shows in many beautiful plates, the greatest Jewish items in the Bodleian Library and Oxford colleges’ libraries. The editors, Rebecca Abrams and Cesar Merchan-Hamann, combine Western history,Jewish history, art history, and Oxford history in this beautiful and fascinating book." -- Elliott Abrams * Mosaic Magazine *
Table of ContentsLibrarian's Foreword Richard Ovenden
Preface Martin J. Gross
Introduction to the Bodleian Library & College Collections César Merchán-Hamann
Chapter 1 The Laud Collection Giles Mandelbrote
Chapter 2 The Pococke Collection Benjamin Williams
Chapter 3 The Huntington Collection Simon Mills and César Merchán-Hamann
Chapter 4 The Kennicott Collection Theo Dunkelgrün
Chapter 5 The Canonici Collection Dorit Raines
Chapter 6 The Oppenheim Collection Joshua Teplitsky
Chapter 7 The Michael Collection Saverio Campanini
Chapter 8 The Genizah Collection Nadio Vidro
Chapter 9 The College Library Collections Rahel Fronda
From Collectors to Readers Piet van Boxel
Notes
Further Reading
Contributors
Picture Credits
Index
