Category Archives: Hebrew language

New Literature Journals

We have been busy buying new books and journals for the Library. Many thanks for all of the suggestions and recommendations from our readers. IMG_2069

We have bought the back catalogue of  הליקון Helicon anthological journal of contemporary poetry and משיב הרוח Mashiv ha-ruaḥ. We will continue to receive these two journals as more issues are published.IMG_2068

We have also bought an online subscription to the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics. Edited by: Geoffrey Khan
Associate editors: Shmuel Bolozky, Steven Fassberg, Gary A. Rendsburg, Aaron D. Rubin, Ora R. Schwarzwald, Tamar Zewi.

Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics

You can access the  Encyclopaedia via SOLO using your Single Sign On.

We display our latest acquisitions in the cabinet in the library foyer, and update this weekly. Remember to check regularly to see the newest additions to the Library!

 

Purim Highlight from our Archives: The Story of a Naked Jew saved by an Arab

Today is Purim, a Jewish holiday commemorating a time when the Jewish people of Persia were saved from extermination thanks to the efforts of a wise and beautiful Queen Esther. Purim, meaning “lots” (lottery used to choose the date for the massacre), is celebrated annually, when observant Jews read from the Book of Esther, give to charity and feast. The latter is accompanied by carnival-like celebrations, performing of plays and parodies – ‘Purim Spiel’, and dressing up in costumes.

The Leopold Muller Memorial Library holds a multitude of sources on Purim: academic studies and archival accounts.

Just but one example of the latter is an excerpt from the Personal Archive of Raphael Loewe (see: online exhibition). Raphael’s great-grandfather, Louis Loewe, a 19th century academic, had a life-threatening experience in the Palestinian desert during a Druse revolt (1839), where he was left bare naked and saved by an Arab:

On his way to Saffed he had a bad experience. The Druze were revolting against their king at the time and pillaged the whole area up to Saffed and surroundings. [Loewe] encountered them in En Zetun (near Safet), had all his clothes and belongings taken and was left to fend for himself, beaten and wounded. An Arab, Mustapha Mahmed, took pity on Loewe and handed him a thick blanket to cover the naked body and a spear to defend himself with. Thus the bloody Loewe wandered nearly naked, hungry and thirsty into Safet.” (Kurrein, p. 7)

Loewe’s deliverance was commemorated for generations as part of the Loewe family’s Purim tradition: “He would celebrate this day, on which he escaped death by a hair’s breadth, together with his family for years to come. On Purim his children would play ‘Bedouins’ in memory of what had happened.” (Kurrein, p. 7)

Louis Loewe pursued freelance scholarship while assisting patrons and long-term supporters. Well before settling in Sir Moses Montefiore’s entourage and starting a family (1844), Loewe embarked on his own version of the Grand Tour that took him to Africa and Asia (1839-1839) to study what he claimed to be the unexplored languages and cultures of Nubia and Circassia. Louis Loewe was widely known for his polyglot skills; in Celebrities of the Day: A monthly Repertoire of Contemporary Biography (April 1881, p. 63), he was described as a “monster of human languages; a Briareus [100-armed, 50-headed mythical creature – ed.] of the parts of speech”. Jessie Kurrein, in her portrayal of the scholar, claims Louis had perfect command of 39 languages.

 

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Nubian vocabulary lists, one column of Nubian parallel to a column with a German translation recorded in Hebrew characters [Credits: Leopold Muller Memorial Library, Raphael Loewe Archive, shelfmark: Alouis 2,15]

His notebooks and travelogues form part of our Personal Archive of Raphael Loewe.

Read more about the “The Loewe Family – A Scholarly Dynasty” in our article online (pp. 29-48).

Explore our online exhibition: Raphael Loewe Archives.

Highlights: Bartolocci’s Bibliotheca Magna Rabbinica (1675-1693)

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Title page of the first volume (1675)

Today’s highlight is Leopold Zunz’s own copy of Bartolocci’s Bibliotheca Magna Rabbinica The first edition four-volume set was published between 1675-1693 in Rome, ex Typographia Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide. The work is considered one of the first comprehensive non-critical Hebrew bibliographies and is one of the earliest products of Italian Christian Hebraism.  Leopold Zunz used and quoted it extensively in his first critical scholarly works on Hebrew bibliography.

Don Iulio Bartoloccio (Giulio Bartolocci), born in 1613 in Celleno, was a Cistercian monk and a student of a converted Jew – Giovanni Battista Jonah Galileo (formerly Judah Jonah of Safed). Bartolocci was appointed Professor of Hebrew and Rabbinics at the Collegium Neophytorum in Rome (1651), institution created to re-educate Jewish converts. He was also a Hebrew Scribe at the Vatican Library.

We hold 3 volumes of the work as part of the Foyle-Montefiore Collection, formerly the library of Sir Moses Montefiore [shelfmark: Mont 63cd18]. The Foyle-Montefiore Collection is abundant in works by other famous Christian Hebraists and bibliographers such as Johannes Buxtorf (1564-1629), Johann Leusden (1624-99), John Selden (1584-1654), John Lightfoot (1602-75), Giovanni Bernardo De’Rossi (1742-1831) and Moritz Steinschneider (1816-1907).

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Autograph of Leopold Zunz

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Front cover: tan calf, tooled in blind.

Trial until 15 Nov.: Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics Online

Muller Library users are now invited to trial the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics Online (Brill). The trial expires on the 15th of November. You can share your feedback here or send us an email.

Access: Muller Library terminals (ask librarian for assistance).
Your feedback will help us decide whether to purchase permanent access to the database.

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Edited by Geoffrey Khan

 

The Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics offers a systematic and comprehensive treatment of all aspects of the history and study of the Hebrew language from its earliest attested form to the present day. The encyclopedia contains overview articles that provide a readable synopsis of current knowledge of the major periods and varieties of the Hebrew language as well as thematically-organized entries which provide further information on individual topics. With over 950 entries and approximately 400 contributing scholars, the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics is the authoritative reference work for students and researchers in the fields of Hebrew linguistics, general linguistics, Biblical studies, Hebrew and Jewish literature, and related fields.

 

Features and Benefits:

• Search the full text by keyword and Hebrew character set, in addition to advanced search options.

• Navigate extensive cross-references via hyperlinks.

• Access tertiary treatment of a wide-range of topics such as the Hebrew of various sources (texts, manuscripts, inscriptions, reading traditions), major grammatical features (phonology, morphology, and syntax), lexicon, script and paleography, theoretical linguistic approaches, etc.