by Fabrizio Quaglia

This is the final post in a series of posts by Fabrizio Quaglia on his ongoing work collecting Footprints and other data from the collection of David Kaufmann, now at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. As Quaglia notes, the collection is multilayered, revealing libraries within libraries.

Abraham Berliner (1833-1915)

A copy of the very important work Sefer ha-Kuzari, Venice 1594 (Kaufmann B 351) – composed by the Spanish philosopher and poet Yehudah ha-Levi (1075-1141) – was owned by Abraham Berliner (1833-1915) immediately prior to Kaufmann. Berliner was selected in 1873 as professor of Jewish history and literature at the newly founded rabbinic seminary of Berlin, where he was also the first librarian. Berliner directed the important “Magazin für Jüdische Geschichte und Literatur” (renamed later as “Magazin für die Wissenschaft des Judenthums”) in 1874-1893, and was author of many historical works resulting from his research in the archives and libraries of Europe and particularly of Italy. According to his cursive Ashkenazic Hebrew note in a worn violet ink, he sold his copy of Sefer ha-Kuzari in March-April 1879, likely to the young David Kaufmann, who would have signed with initials only. Kaufmann’s ownership notes are also written in violet ink, but his calligraphy is usually different, but the spelling of Berliner’s name with Yiddish vocalization seems a bit unusual.  [figure 1] This demonstrates a relationship between the two scholars: in 1884 Berliner reestablished the literary society Mekitse Nirdamim (originally created in 1861) in order to publish medieval Hebrew manuscripts with Kaufmann, and letters from Kaufmann to Berliner in the years 1884-1899 have been edited by the Austrian rabbi Ferdinand Rosenthal (1839-1921), Kaufmann’s brother-in-law (he married his sister Amalie, 1856 or 1857-1911) and one of his first biographers.

Incidentally, at the top of the title page of Sefer ha-Kuzari there is the cursive Hebrew signature of a Mosheh Shalom who bought it in 1652. In the Italian Jewry the surname Shalom became Salom. A Salom family, perhaps of Spanish origin, moved to Padua in the sixteenth century, where they held important positions within the Jewish community, and later in Venice as well. A branch of Saloms, however, remained in Padua, where in the seventeenth century they were silk merchants. A Mosheh Salom, son of Yitsḥak, called Moretto, married Mazaltov Aldaheb in Venice on 22 March 1624 , but the modest ketubbah, at the National Library of Israel, ms. Heb. 2° 901.139, seems to show a different signature of the groom as compared to the one on Kaufmann B 351.

Mordekhai Adelmann (1847-1922)

On 17 December 1895, Kaufmann  was at his parents’ house to celebrate the engagement party of his brother Ignác (Ignaz; 1859-1923) in his native Kojetín in Moravia. While there, he received the 1489 Lisbon Abudarham (Kaufmann B 1, missing) – a compilation of laws, customs, and commentary on the prayer book by the Spanish rabbi David Abudarham (fl. 1340) – brought to him from Jerusalem by his friend Mordekhai Adelmann (1847-1922), also known as Moritz Adelmann and Moritz Edelmann, born in Lithuania to an Orthodox Jewish family. Adelmann took an early interest in the Haśkalah movement, a fact which in the 1870s led him to Vienna in search of a broader education. He devoted much of his time to writing and editing articles for the Jewish press. In seeking of material, he scoured the European libraries looking for little-known Hebrew manuscripts to study and expound. At the same time, he founded the Lema’an Tsiyon Society of Frankfurt, a nationalist organization intended to support Jewish charitable institutions in Palestine. Later he lived for a few years in Paris. While he was studying manuscripts of the Vatican Library in 1878, M. Adelmann was commissioned by the Vatican to find ancient material in Iraq and Persia. This was a difficult challenge: he was once robbed while traveling on a boat on the Tigris near Basra. Finally, Adelmann settled in Jerusalem in 1881, working as a teacher in the German-Jewish Orphanage School and as a storekeeper, while he continued working tirelessly for the Lema’an Tsiyon Society to maintain and extend the Jewish settlement in Palestine, establishing hospitals and giving assistance to poor immigrants. M. Adelmann also helped to found, in 1892, a public library in Jerusalem called the Abarbanel Library, the first iteration of the Jewish National and University Library (now The National Library of Israel), when he was secretary and then president of the old Jerusalem Lodge. For decades Adelmann supplied D. Kaufmann with manuscripts he acquired in and out of Palestine from yeshivot (for instance in Hebron) as well as from private Jerusalemites, including material discovered in the Jerusalem genizot, and precious Yemenite manuscripts that he had bought from Jews immigrating from Yemen, like a collection of 18th-19th-century Seliḥot (ms. Kaufmann A 407), and a 17th-century Maḥzor of the North-African rite (ms. Kaufmann A 410). Some Yemenite mss. came from the collection of Moses Wilhelm Shapira of Jerusalem (1830-1884), a not always reliable antiquities dealer. Adelmann procured for Kaufmann several other books as well. In fact, his signature also shows up on the first part of Conciliator, Frankfurt 1632 (Kaufmann C 1069; first edition), a Spanish work reconciling discordant Bible passages that was meant for Christian scholars and clergymen as well as for a Sephardi audience of converso origin, written by the Amsterdam-resident rabbi Menasseh b. Yisraʼel (1604-1657).

At the top of p. 184 of the above-mentioned Kaufmann B 1, one can see a partially deleted 17th-century Italian note “Liuorno al s.[igno]r Solomon Racah”. Solomon Racah was a Jewish merchant of North-African origin, son of Massol/Massod/Massot Raccà/Racha/Racach. In 1707, Salomone moved to Genoa from Livorno with his brother Abramo and a servant (the name of a third brother, Jacob, is also known). Salomon and Abram managed a company importing a great variety of goods (e.g. Neapolitan silk pieces as well as saffron and bales of spun cotton from the Levant). Around 1710 he became one of the massari of the Jewish community of Genoa. Together with his brother Abram, he obtained an annual exemption from wearing the Jewish sign thanks to the utility of their activity for the Genoese economy following. Salomon lived in Genoa Until at least 1718 (in that year he was exempted again from wearing the badge). Salomon and Abram helped pay ransoms of Genoese captives in Egypt and the Barbary Coast.

Here is an example of the network of relationships that could intervene through middlemen in the commercial network and, in this case, ransom a prisoner. A document of 21 February 1712 noted that a certain Giovanni Battista Mazini, slave of a Turkish captain called “Yusuf Rais” son of a French renegade, was freed paying 387 “pezzi da otto” (Spanish silver coins), 305 of which were brought to Algiers by a Jew called Daniel Coen. Having certified the poverty of the redeemed, the Magistrato del Riscatto degli schiavi of Genoa paid the money advanced by D. Coen to Abram and Salomon Racah, appointed as attorneys of the firm David and Salamon Coen of Livorno. The Racah brothers operated their business, sometimes as agents and attorneys of other firms, also in Livorno, Naples, Venice, Tunisia, Alexandria, Cairo, and Belgium. In the 1720s and 1730s, Salomon Racah was the agent in Venice of the Livornese company managed by two Iberian Jews, Ergas and Silvera, for the selling in Venice of diamonds extracted from the famous Golconda mines in India. This was a kind of trade in which large sums of money could easily generate controversies on payments like those involving S. Racah and Jews living in Livorno and London. From the 1730s until his death on 15 October 1754, the wealthy philanthropist “Salomon Racach” lived in Venice, where he maintained a rabbinical academy and where he financially supported the kabbalist circle headed by Mosheh Ḥayyim Luzzatto (1707-1746) in Padua. After the death of his first wife, this Salomon married again in the Spring of 1738. It cannot, however, be certain that “Salomon Racach” is the Jew from Livorno who settled in Genoa many decades before. Since among the goods imported by Abram Racah in the years 1728-1735 there were some books, his brother Solomon could have received the Lisbon Abudarham as a result of this commerce.

This incunable was censored in 1619 by the converted Camillo Jaghel (1554-d. before 1624). This is a further demonstration of the extreme mobility of the Hebrew books and their owners: Lisbon, Italy (Emilia Romagna or Marche), Jerusalem, Kojetín and Budapest.

An unsafe path

Many book owners remain nothing more than a name written on a page, sometimes not even fully deciphered. A certain Italian Jew, Ya‘akov Gershon, on Purim 1668 owned the (incomplete) Kaufmann B 448, with the didactic poem Musar ha-sekhel be-melitsa, a work attributed to the Iraqi Hai b. Sherira Ga’on (939-1038), and the ethical marriage poem Kaʻarat kesef by the thirteenth-century French liturgical poet Yosef b. Ḥanan b. Natan Ezobi, printed in Venice in 1578. The probable surname or place of origin of Ya‘akov Gershon, even if it was indicated in his signature after his name, is not fully understandable because f. 2 is torn. Nor could the identity of the Italian Jew Yesha‘yah (Isaiah) be ascertained. He owned the influential Kevod Elohim Ferrara 1555 (Kaufmann B 342; only edition), a philosophical work about the differences between Judaism and Aristotelianism by the Spanish rabbi Yosef Ibn Shem Ṭov (ca. 1400 – ca. 1460). On the contrary, Leb Kalits signed in full Sefer Or Ḥadash printed in Amsterdam in 1671 (Kaufmann B 44; only edition) – a compilation of laws on blessings by the Polish kabbalist, Talmudist, and grammarian Ḥayyim Binyamin Ze’ev Boḵner (1609-1684) – but his identity is quite shrouded in mists.  From his handwriting one can deduce that he was a 19th-century Ashkenazi Jew. Likewise unknown is the man who inscribed the 17th-century Sephardic signature “Avraham son of honorable teacher Rabbi Yamak” (Yamaḵ ימך could also be read as Yamaq ימק) on the title page of the short elegiac Naḥalat Yaʻakov melitsot, Amsterdam 1652 (Kaufmann B 415; only edition) that the Polish Yaʻakov b. Naftali (fl. mid-17th cent.) wrote about the Chmielnicki pogroms of 1648-1649. On the upper left side of the title page of the above-mentioned Shelomoh bar Eli‘ezer ha-Levi’s `Avodat ha-Levi (the Kaufmann B 61 copy) is a cut off cursive Hebrew signature written in Sephardic script, perhaps 16th century, of a son of the honorable teacher Rabbi David Basa or Baqa, whose the first name is no longer decipherable. We can mention another copy of Sefer ha-zikhronot by S. Aboab (Kaufmann B 236) signed in a 17th-century Italian cursive Hebrew “Aḥim bnei Yosef Yiśra’el Rava z.l.” (“Brothers, sons of Yosef Yiśra’el Rava of blessed memory”). The family Rava (also Ravà) was in Tuscany around the end of the 13th-century, afterwards settled in Bologna, Padua, Verona, and Reggio Emilia where the Ravas in the 19th century managed an important trading house. The Ravas were also jurists, critics, historians, publicists, etc. However, since there is no indication of place, date, or a patronymic (regarding Yosef Yiśra’el) in this inscription, it is not possible to ascertain who the brothers who inherited Kaufmann B 236 were. The handwritten Lekeṭ Pe’ah, composed by a certain rabbi Eli‘ezer and copied in the 1560s, collecting homiletics and short Torah thoughts (allusions, acronyms and numerical values), seemingly bears at the bottom of first leaf the same inscription that is in Kaufmann B 236.

Other cases are more fortunate. It is, for example, very probable that the penciled inscription appearing on Seder Seliḥot, Sulzbach 1737 (Kaufmann B 610; only edition) referred to a known person, rabbi Moses Mannheimer, because he carried out his activity in that city. [figure 2] He was born in Worms on 4 October 1810 and died there on 21 July 1882. Son of David Mannheimer and Eva Durlach, he married Zipora Cahn. M. Mannheimer was an adherent of Wissenschaft des Judentums and a Reformist. He published religious textbooks and books on the history of Jews of his city, Judaism, synagogue music and persecutions of Jews in Medieval Germany, particularly in Worms. These are: in Frankfurt am Main, Die Juden in Worms. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Juden in den Rheingegenden (1842; a copy is in the Kaufmann Collection, shelf number D.384); in Darmstadt, Lehrbuch der israelitischen Religion (1866), Die Kunst und das deutsche Lied im israelitischen Cultus. Dem hiesigen Gesangsverein ⹂Harmonie” (Synagogenchor) am Gründungstage (10. August) seines 10jährigen Bestehens (1869), Die Judenverfolgungen in Speyer, Worms und Mainz im Jahre 1096 während des ersten Kreuzzuges. Aus einem in der Grossherzoglichen Hofbibliothek zu Darmstadt befindlichen alten hebräischen Manuscripte übertragen und mit historisch-kritischen Anmerkungen (1877; the following year Mannheimer published in Berlin the Hebrew text by Eli‘ezer b. Natan of Mainz, active 12th century), Das gebetbuch und der religionsunterricht (1881); in Magdeburg Der Mosaismus und das Aegypterthum in religiöser und politisch-socialer beziehung 1878 (the second edition was released in Darmstadt in 1891).

What it has been featured in this wandering tour through places and people are nothing more than postcards of a bigger route. You will find the complete records of 250 books with more bio-bibliographic details on their provenance in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Library OPAC, opac.mtak.hu/.

by Fabrizio Quaglia

This is the fourth in a series of posts by Fabrizio Quaglia on his ongoing work collecting Footprints and other data from the collection of David Kaufmann, now at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. As Quaglia notes, the collection is multilayered, revealing libraries within libraries.

The Kaufmann collection is obviously not only made up of items of Italian provenance. After the unification of Italy the ghettos were culturally emptied of the few Jews, who, except the rabbinical elite, often considered their paper heritage, including archival and family registers, something to be forgotten because it was a testimony of the long suffering to which they had been subjected in the Italian states. Many of them were also quite poor. This and a diffuse secularization accentuated the phenomenon of the sale by private individuals of manuscript and printed Hebrew material to scholars and collectors, but this time they were mainly from abroad. In Mortara’s case, he had this a deep uncertainty about the future of Jewish studies in Italy, so he resolved to sell a few manuscripts (formerly belonging to S.V. Dalla Volta) to a Polish book merchant, from which the Cambridge University Library acquired them, and to a German collector and bookseller.

Several Kaufmann books have a Sephardi origin – they were printed in Amsterdam, not only in Hebrew but also in Spanish and Portuguese for a readership not accustomed to Hebrew, who returned to Judaism and who needed an easily understandable guide to Jewish rites and commandments. Unluckily some of these books do not show evidence of ownership. This is not the case of Discursos predicables y avisos espirituales, Amsterdam 1710 (Kaufmann C 1083; only edition), a book of moral sermons in which the author, Abraham Vaez, ḥakam and ḥazan in Bayonne, France (d. 1694?), mixed Biblical texts with numerous citations from Greek and Latin literature. On the recto of the back flyleaf, its owner wrote a Portuguese and a Spanish note which form his name, Elyasib Meldola, to whom the volume could be returned in case of loss. [figure 1] E. Meldola was born on 1748 in Amsterdam; fifth of eight sons of rabbi David Raphael Meldola (b. Livorno 1714 – d. Amsterdam 1800) and of Rachel Sarfaty (Sarfatti) of Amsterdam (1721-1786). D.R. Meldola had moved from Livorno with his father Raphael (1685-1748) to Bayonne in France, where Raphael was chief rabbi, then D.R. Meldola left that city in 1735 and settled in Amsterdam, where he undertook the publication of his father’s works as well as some of his own writings. D.R. Meldola’s son Eliasib (also Elyasib and Eljasib) married Esther Garcia Isidro (b. 1758) on 2 January 1778. He died in Hamburg, where he was ḥazan, at an unknown date but apparently (according to the Livro das Quetubot stored in the Hamburg Staatsarchiv) he was still alive in 1820.

Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq Asa (ca. 1710-ca. 1780)

Another Sephardi was the Spanish physician and rabbinical scholar Avraham ha-Levi Ibn Migash (fl. 16th cent.). He published his only work, Kevod Elohim, in Hebrew in 1585 (Kaufmann B 344; only edition), when he lived in Constantinople. The incomplete copy in Budapest shows marginal glosses and a signature of rabbi Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq Asa (Assa), who was born around 1710 in Istanbul and died there around 1780. A. Asa was one of the leading figures in the golden age of Judeo-Spanish literature in the 18th century. His complete translation of the Bible in Ladino (Constantinople 1739-1745) became the most popular text among the Sephardi communities of the Levant. He translated more religious and scientific works as well: in 1728 the brief Sipur Malke Otmanlis – a version from Hebrew of the unpublished Sefer Divre Yosef by the Cairene rabbi Yosef Sambari (ca. 1630-1703); in 1729 the mystical Leṭraś de Rabbi Akiba; in 1734 the complete prayer book Beit tefillah; in 1742 Sheveṭ Mussar, a kabbalist, moral and ethical text by the Turkish rabbi Eliyyah b. Avraham Shelomoh ha-Kohen (1640-1729); in 1743 the historical Sefer bin Gorion y resto de historias verdaderas (namely the Yosippon); in 1749 the Shulḥan ha-Melekh, taken from Y. Qaro’s Shulḥan ‘arukh; and in 1762 the Menorat ha-Ma’or by Y. Aboab. As it is evident, he published his works in Hebrew as well as in Spanish, for people who did not understand Hebrew. Asa was also the author of an extensive book of coplas (“quatrains”), Sefer Tsorke Tsibur, printed in Constantinople in 1733, which presents the precepts of Judaism in rhymed verse.

Jeremia Samuel Hillesum (1820-1888)

In 1689 the Livro da Gramatica Hebrayca & Chaldayca: Yad lashon dal sefatayim (Kaufmann B 887; only edition) was published in Portuguese in Amsterdam by the Dutch rabbi Šelomoh de Oliveyra (ca. 1633-1708). In a corner of the title page appears the signature “J.S. Hillesum” which stands for “Jeremia Samuel Hillesum.” [figure 2] In this initial overview of the Kaufmann collection we found that the same J.S. Hillesum signed (in Hebrew) the Hebrew and Yiddish, messianic Shirei Yehudah, printed in Amsterdam in 1696 (Kaufmann B 618; only edition); the single work by the Polish cantor Yehudah Leib b. Mosheh (1640-1711) [figure 3], and the ethical Keshet Yehonatan, printed in Dyhernfurth ca. 1697, by the Hungarian rabbi Yehonatan b. Ya`akov (fl. 17th cent.) (Kaufmann B 619). These are bound together. Jeremia Samuel Hillesum was born on 5 September 1820 in Amsterdam, a son of the peddler and shopkeeper Samuel Meijer Hillesum (1789 or 1797-1869) and Hester Jeremias Snoek (1799-1854). In 1847 J.S. Hillesum married Naatje Philip Wagenaar (1827-1892). They had ten children, five sons and five daughters. J.S. Hillesum received his theological training at the Nederlands-Israelietisch Seminarium (NIS) in Amsterdam. Because education at the NIS did not meet the highest standards, the NIS tended to send the most gifted students abroad for additional education, preferably in German. Hence, in 1843 Hillesum received extra Talmud education in Würzburg, and he learned to preach in the synagogue in Emden. Hillesum first became rabbi of the synagogue in Meppel (in the province of Drenthe, Holland) in 1849. In 1853, he became the Drenthe jurisdiction’s first (and last) chief rabbi. In addition to being a rabbi, Hillesum was authorized as a circumciser and was also a qualified examiner for ritual slaughterers. Hillesum was particularly committed to Jewish education and social life. In 1859 he was appointed inspector of the Israelite schools in Drenthe. In 1862 Hillesum replaced the dismissed chief rabbi of the Groningen district. In addition, in 1880 Hillesum was appointed chief rabbi ad interim of the Dutch province of Gelderland. In 1883 he became chief rabbi of the Overijssel district. Until his death on 7 May 1888 in Meppel, Hillesum remained chief rabbi of the four districts. The archive of Jeremiah Samuel Hillesum is part of the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana: it contains 21 sections of Hebrew sermons, and documents in Dutch, Flemish and German relating to his education and employment, such as diplomas, certificates, and correspondence from 1839 to 1885. A Dutch letter written in 1882 by chief rabbi Hillesum from Meppel about helping Russian Jews who fled was signed by him. Sermons of Hillesum on Talmud dated 1845 are the ms. 149 of the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana located in the University Library of Amsterdam. Some sermons to the Torah written and copied ca. 1850 with his loose notes in Dutch and Hebrew are inside the ms. 144 of the Rosenthaliana. In Rosenthaliana ms. 145, there are undated annotations on the Babylonian Talmud in alphabetical order collected and signed by him. His notebook of 226 circumcisions made in various towns of the Netherlands from 1859 to 1882 is now the ms. 260 of Rosenthaliana; the same list is also in the National Library of Israel, ms. Heb. 8°9014. Furthermore, the National Library of Israel owns ms. Heb. 8°2864, where are registered 227 circumcisions made by Hillesum during 1859-1884 and several letters.

by Fabrizio Quaglia

This is the third in a series of posts by Fabrizio Quaglia on his ongoing work collecting Footprints and other data from the collection of David Kaufmann, now at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. As Quaglia notes, the collection is multilayered, revealing libraries within libraries.

Moving towards Western Italy is the small city of Chieri, near Turin. The cursive Hebrew purchase note of one of its inhabitants, Aharon Ya‘akov Segre, father of Netan’el Segre (1623-1691), rabbi in Cento (Ferrara), is readable on the title page of the compendium of the legal Ashkenazic traditions Sefer rav Mordekhai (Riva di Trento, 1558) by the German rabbi Mordekhai b. Hillel (1240?-1298), “From his own money, Aharon Ya‘akov Segre from the honored teacher Yitṣḥak Mesṭre – may his Rock keep him and grant him life – day 9 Ṭevet 386 [C.E. 7 January 1626]” (Kaufmann B 556).[1]

The Sefer rav Mordekhai was previously owned by Yitshak Mesṭre about whom no information was found. His origin is surely from Mestre, a town near Venice. A “Guglielmo di Elia da Mestre” was a pawnbroker in Florence in the 1480s. Later the birthplace “da Mestre” became the surname Mestre. In 1605 a rabbi called “Emanuel Mestre,” probably resident in Casale Monferrato, was one of three Jewish judges summoned to resolve a quarrel regarding the heritage of the influential Simon son of Vitale Sacerdote of Alessandria. As a result of what has been reported as well as for the chronological proximity of the abovementioned signatures of Segre, one can guess that Yiṣḥak Mesṭre was a Piedmontese Jew, too.[2]

A stop in the Marche region

Asher Viṭerbo (active 1748-1800)

Asher Viṭerbo (recorded in Italian documents as Anselmo Viterbo) lived South-East of Emilia, in Pesaro, in the seventeenth century. Viterbo owned the Sefer ha-ḥasidim, printed in Bologna in 1538 (Kaufmann B 293; first edition). Asher was the son of Shimshon Viṭerbo (Sansone Viterbo) of Pesaro, an eminent member of the Jewish community of Pesaro, a rabbi (although never chief rabbi), and a poet (he authored two published wedding poems containing riddles as was customary at the time, and in 1780s celebratory verses for the circumcision of the unnamed son of a certain rabbi Refa’el Shimshon ha-Levi from Pesaro). In 1773, Asher corresponded in 1773 with the rabbi of Florence, Dani’el b. Mosheh David Ṭerni on the resurrection of the dead and on metempsychosis (which for Viterbo was a superfluous occult doctrine); and in 1799 he corresponded with Mattatyah Nissim Ṭerni (b. 1745), a rabbi living in the Marche.  All of these letters are contained in Ṭerni’s book of rabbinical responses, Midbar matanah, printed in Florence in 1810. Twenty-one letters from A. Viterbo, years 1780-1800, addressed to the distinguished Hebraist Piedmontese Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi (1742-1831) are kept in Parma, Biblioteca Palatina; Viterbo gave De Rossi a fifteenth-century book of Psalms on parchment.[3] We can reconstruct Viterbo’s library thanks to his signature, which includes is name and surname placed between two equal signs,  and appears on 13 manuscripts, including a sixteenth-century miscellany of texts by Italian Jews (ms. Kaufmann A 504), and a number of books (two of them are incunables), treasured in the libraries of Budapest (also in the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary – University of Jewish Studies), Hamburg, Jerusalem, London, Moscow, New York (Jewish Theological Seminary and Columbia University Library), Oxford, Parma, Piacenza, Trento and in the Vatican.[4]

Other owners from Marche

According to what one can read in handwritten form on the books he owned, the now missing Kaufmann B 206, Venice 1550, and B 207, Ferrara 1552, Efrayim Ḥay b. Maṣliaḥ Ḥay was born on 10 December 1562, perhaps in Jesi (Marche). Since both volumes (bound together, in the distinctive Mortara binding) concern the topic of the ritual slaughtering, shehitah, Maṣliaḥ Ḥay who signed the verso of the title page of Kaufmann 206 was probably a bodek (lit. “checker”) or a shohet. These assignments were sometimes carried out by the same man. Efrayim Ḥay could have exercised the alleged profession of his father in Jesi and in a locality belonging to the Republic of Venice, as he declared on f. [8]r of Kaufmann B 207. Efrayim Ḥay certainly had a brother called Yiṣḥak, as he reported at the top of f. [2]r of Kaufmann B 206, and could have had a scion named Efrayim Shemu’el, who wrote in Hebrew a peculiar ownerʼs note at the end of the same volume, slightly cropped and faded at the left margin: “People sign their books from the beginning of time lest someone come from the market and say ‘This is mine’ thus I wrote my name Efrayim Shemu’el …”.[5] On f. [8]v of Kaufmann B 207 Efrayim Ḥay wrote that his father was the son of a certain Moshe from Ascoli (Marche).

This quick walk-through of Marche ends with a book owner who perhaps was not originally from this region. On the title page of Sefer ha-gedarim, Saloniki 1567 (Kaufmann B 134; first edition, also in the libraries of S.V. Dalla Volta and Mortara) – there are four 17th-century Sephardic signatures, all of them written by the same person: Shemu’el b. ‘Immanu’el Ḥamiṣ.  The surname Ḥamiṣ belongs to a Marrano family of merchants (chiefly leather and cloths) from the Iberian Peninsula, who settled in various Italian communities after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. Indeed, in the 16th and 17th centuries we can identify traces of Camis and Camiz (so in Italian documents) in Ancona, Ferrara, Genoa, and Venice, from where they traded with the ports of Livorno and Tunis. A certain Samuel Camis (also called Camizi), who in 1613 was in Tunis for a short term, was perhaps the same man who in 1594 was appointed as one of the two delegates of the Levantine Congregation of the Jews of Ancona. A “Samuel Camiz” was censused in Ferrara with his family in 1692 when he was 55 years old. One of them could have been the owner of Kaufmann B 134, but it cannot be sure because it is not known whose sons the people mentioned were. We also see a Shemu’el Ḥamiṣ, who copied the Magen Avraham in (ms. 77 A of the Library of the Alliance Israélite Universelle in Paris).[6]

[1] Apparently, the same A.Y. Segre wrote marginal glosses, some underlines, and a few corrections that one can notice on several folios of this thick volume. A.Y. Segre bought from Šemaryah b. Yehudah Qonian (Conian, from Conegliano in the Treviso province) of Asti on 8 October 1626 an Ashkenazic copy on parchment dated 1394 of Sefer ha-Šorašim (“Book of Roots”) by David b. Yosef Qimḥi (1160-1235) – which is the Cod. 3050 of the Palatina Library of Parma (his purchase note is on f. 2r). On 19 October 1626 Segre purchased by Qonian an Ashkenazic mid-to-late 14th-century handwritten collection of nine legal texts on parchment, the Cod. 2592 of Palatina Library (his purchase note is on f. 2r here too). Flaminio Servi, Cenni storici sulla comunione israelitica di Cento, “L’Educatore israelita”, XIII, 1865, 9, p. 265; Elliott Horowitz, A Jewish Youth Confraternity in Seventeenth-Century Italy, “Italia”, V,  1985, 1-2, pp. 69, 77, 89; Hebrew manuscripts in the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma. Catalogue; edited by Benjamin Richler; palaeographical and codicological descriptions, Malachi Beit-Arié, Jerusalem, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jewish National and University Library, 2001, nos. 875, 1441, pp. 196, 417.

[2] Archivio di Stato di Alessandria, Fondo notarile, Notaio Giovanni Marco Pandino, Registro 908 (it is a notarial deed drawn up in Alessandria on 21 September 1605); La comunità ebraica di Venezia e il suo antico cimitero; Ricerca a cura di Aldo Luzzatto, I, Milano, Il polifilo, 2000, p. 360; Michele Luzzati, La circolazione di uomini, donne e capitali ebraici nell’Italia del Quattrocento: un esempio toscano-cremonese, pp. 44-45, in Gli Ebrei a Cremona. Storia di una comunità fra Medioevo e Rinascimento; a cura di Giovanni B. Magnoli, Firenze, Giuntina, 2002; Elvio Giuditta, Araldica Ebraica in Italia, Torino, Società Italiana di Studi Araldici, 2007, p. 222.

[3] MS. 1716 of Palatina –– the gift note is on f. 192v

[4] Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library; compiled by Adolf Neubauer, Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, 1886, no. 361, col. 76; George Margoliouth, Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the British Museum, I, London, British Museum, 1899, no. 198, p. 150; III, 1915, no. 978, pp. 305-306; Giuseppe Gabrieli, Manoscritti e carte orientali nelle biblioteche e archivi d’Italia, Firenze, L.S. Olschki, 1930, p. 87; Israele Zoller, Per la storia delle famiglie ebraiche in Ancona nella seconda metà del Settecento, “La Rassegna Mensile di Israel”, VI, 1931-1932, 11-12, pp. 534-535, 543-544; Dan Pagis, Baroque Trends in Italian Hebrew Poetry as Reflected in an Unknown Genre, pp. 267, 274, in Italia Judaica. II. Gli ebrei in Italia tra Rinascimento ed età barocca. Atti del II Convegno internazionale Genova 10-15 giugno 1984, Rome 1986; D. Pagis, ‘l sod ḥatum. Le-toledot ha-ḥiddah ha-ivrit be-Iṭaliah we-be-Holland (“A secret sealed. Hebrew Baroque Emblem-Riddles from Italy and Holland”), Yerušalayim, Magnes, [746] 1986, pp. 77, 145, 157 [in Hebrew]; Werther Angelini, Momenti dell’attività e dell’incidenza ebraica tra Cinquecento e Settecento nelle piazze di Ancona, Senigallia e Pesaro, pp. 43-44, in Cultura e società nel Settecento. 2. La vita economica nelle Marche, Urbino, Arti grafiche editoriali, 1988; Gardens and Ghettos. The Art of Jewish Life in Italy; edited by Vivian B. Mann, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1989, no. 161a, p. 281; Viviana Bonazzoli, Sulla struttura familiare delle aziende ebraiche nella Ancona del ‘700, pp. 149, 153, in La presenza ebraica nelle Marche. Secoli XIII-XX; a cura di Sergio Anselmi e V. Bonazzoli, Ancona, Proposte e ricerche, 1993; Maria Luisa Moscati Benigni, Marche. Itinerari ebraici. I luoghi, la storia, l’arte, Venezia, Marsilio, 1996, p. 125; Hebrew manuscripts in the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma. Catalogue, no. 397, p. 80; David Malkiel, The Rimini Papers: A Resurrection Controversy in Eighteenth-Century Italy, “Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy”, XI, 2002, 2, pp. 89-96, 104, 114; V. Bonazzoli, L’economia del ghetto, pp. 22, 59, 61, in Studi sulla comunità ebraica di Pesaro; a cura di Riccardo Paolo Uguccioni, Montelabbate, Fondazione Scavolini, 2003; A. Salah, Le République des Lettres. Rabbins, écrivains et médecins juifs en Italie au XVIIIe siècle, Leiden, Brill, 2007, no. 1021, p. 658; Renata Segre, Gli ebrei a Pesaro sotto la Legazione apostolica, pp. 174, 184, in Pesaro dalla devoluzione all’illuminismo, IV, Venezia, Marsilio, 2009; Marvin J. Heller, The Seventeenth Century Hebrew Book, I, Leiden, Brill, 2011, p. 544; Kedem, Online Auction no. 15, Jerusalem, 2018, lot 82; website MEI. Material Evidence in Incunabula, <https://data. cerl.org/mei/02124954> and <https://data.cerl.org/mei/02137658>; Biblioteca Digitale Trentina, <https://bdt.bibcom. trento.it/Testi-a-stampa/19#page/n137>.

[5] This is not an unusual way to claim ownership of a book, cf. Annabel Gallop, Hands off! This book is mine! Ownership inscriptions in Hebrew manuscripts, in the Asian and African studies blog of the British Library, <https://blogs.bl.uk/asian-and-african/2020/03/hands-off-this-book-is-mine-ownership-inscriptions-in-hebrew-manuscripts.html>.

[6] Michele Cassandro, Aspetti della storia economica e sociale degli ebrei di Livorno nel Seicento, Milano, Giuffrè, 1983, pp. 71, 79, 121 (note 312); Robert Bonfil, Rabbis and Jewish Communities in Renaissance Italy, Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 1989, p. 172 (note 316); Rossana Urbani and Guido Nathan Zazzu, The Jews in Genoa, I, Leiden, Brill, 1999, docs. 647-648, 683-685, 689, 698; La comunità ebraica di Venezia e il suo antico cimitero, pp. 305-306, 313, 523; Giuliana Boccadamo, Mercanti e schiavi fra Regno di Napoli, Barberia e Levante (secc. XVII-XVIII), pp. 252-253, in Rapporti diplomatici e scambi commerciali nel Mediterraneo moderno. Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi [Fisciano 23-24 ottobre 2002]; a cura di Mirella Mafrici, Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino, 2004; Elia Boccara, Gli ebrei italo-iberici presenti a Tunisi (o in relazione con Tunisi) dalla conquista turca al regno di Yusuf Dey, pp. 133-134, 141-142, 156-157, 171-172, in Percorsi di storia ebraica. Atti del Convegno internazionale (Cividale del Friuli-Gorizia, 7-9 settembre 2004); a cura di Pier Cesare Ioly Zorattini, Udine, Forum, 2005; E. Boccara, In fuga dall’inquisizione. Ebrei portoghesi a Tunisi: due famiglie, quattro secoli di storia, Firenze, Giuntina, 2011, pp. 67, 75, 87; L. Graziani Secchieri, «In casa d’Amadio Sacerdoti Mondovì: lui medesimo d’anni 35». Il censimento del ghetto di Ferrara del 1692, p. 140, in Ebrei a Ferrara. Ebrei di Ferrara. Aspetti culturali, economici e sociali della presenza ebraica a Ferrara (secc. XIII-XX). Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi (Ferrara 3-4 ott. 2013) Fondazione Museo Nazionale dell’Ebraismo Italiano e della Shoah; a cura di L. Graziani Secchieri, Giuntina, Firenze 2014.

by Fabrizio Quaglia

This is the second in a series of posts by Fabrizio Quaglia on his ongoing work collecting Footprints and other data from the collection of David Kaufmann, now at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. As Quaglia notes, the collection is multilayered, revealing libraries within libraries.

Abraham Joseph Salomon Graziano (1619-1685)

The Mantuan origin of the owners of many of the items in the Kaufmann library is of course not the only geographical point of departure from which it grew. The provenance of at least fourteen 16th-17th century Hebrew books (with more identified through ongoing work) that belonged to Avraham Yosef Šelomoh Graṣiano of Pesaro (Abraham Joseph Salomon Graziano; 1619-1685) takes us to Modena, where he was rabbi since 1647 after having moved there in 1635. Graziano created one of the largest Jewish libraries of the time: circa 4,000 volumes. This library has been dispersed in various libraries (more than two thirds outside Italy), including private ones. Today only around 200 manuscripts (11 in the Kaufmann collection), and about a hundred books, often annotated by him have been identified. Graziano signed his volumes in Hebrew with the initials of his and his father’s names, אי”ש ג”ר. Graziano was a cousin of Netan’el b. Binyamin Ṭraboṭ (1576-1653), his colleague in Modena, from whom he inherited about 70 printed and handwritten items. In one of his manuscripts[1], Graziano recorded the volumes he bought during the time – indicating from whom he purchased and how much he paid it. His lists, however, are incomplete and sometimes incorrect since certain books that are in the Kaufmann collection are absent there, and apparently he attributed more than one purchase to a mistaken seller.[2]

 

The same is true regarding to what Graziano wrote about the provenance on the volumes themselves. An example is his copy (Kaufmann B 413; only edition) of Mevakesh ha-Shem, an exegetical work by the Moroccan rabbi Shemu’el Ḥagiz (d. 1634), published in Venice in 1596. On it Graziano wrote that he bought it from משה טילייו (“Mosheh Telio”) in 1649 in Modena [figure 12]. It seems that the only source concerning this Moise Teglio (this would presumably have been his Italian name) is the list of books that Graziano purchased from him,[3] and from Graziano’s notes on the items themselves, where in most of cases is mentioned as טיליאו (Tigliao?). Sometimes Graziano also clarified that Moise Teglio was רומנו (“Romano,” ie. from Rome, or of Roman origin). According to his own list Graziano got from M. Teglio Mevakesh ha-Shem for three Modenese lire and a half on 8 July 1649 together with Davar Shemu’el, a traditional rabbinical commentary by the same author, printed at the same place and in the same year. Graziano also listed to have bought for seven Modenese lire a little worn copy of a complete edition, printed in Cracow and commented by the Polish rabbi Mosheh b. Yiśra’el Isserleś (1527?-1572), of Shulḥan ‘Arukh by Yosef Karo. Graziano seems to be confused here since his note of purchase of this book from Teglio in 1649 is on f. 3v of Kaufmann B 812, corresponding to the Hanau 1627 edition. A third book is the Yede Mosheh, acquired from Teglio in June or July 1649 for two and a half Modenese lire. Perhaps it is the edition published in Saloniki in 1571, or in Venice in 1597. In any case Graziano affirmed in Kaufmann B 413 to have purchased it for an expensive price together with Mevakesh ha-Shem.[4]

In November/December 1660, Graziano acquired a copy of the reference book on the 613 commandments titled `Avodat ha-Levi, Venice 1546 (Kaufmann B 626) from Rabbi Menaḥem Shabbetai, son of the late rabbi Kanaruṭi..[5] On the title page of this volume, Graziano wrote an additional four titles but it is not sure that he had all of them from M. S. Kanaruṭi. They are: Yefeh nof a miscellany of documents by the Greek poet rabbi Yehudah Zarqo (fl. 16th century), Venice, ca. 1572;[6] Tsori ha-yagon, a work on resignation and fortitude under misfortune by the Spanish philosopher, poet and commentator Šem Ṭov b. Yosef Falaquera (ca. 1225-ca. 1295), edited in Cremona in 1550 and in Prague in 1612; the poem Sefer Taḥkemoni, Constantinople 1578, by the Spanish translator, poet and traveler rabbi Yehudah b. Šelomoh al-Ḥarizi (1170-1235); Ohel Mo‘ed. Members of Canaruti/Cannaruti (so in Italian documents) family were registered in Ferrara in 1630 but no longer in the census of 1692. A Salvator/Salvador Cannaruti was active in Modena as haberdasher in 1692-1693 and a certain Vitale son of the late Moisè Cannaruti lived in the Modenese ghetto in 1670.[7]

Similarly, in the case of the ‘Avodat ha-kodesh, printed in Cracow in 1577 (Kaufmann B 627; first edition) – Graziano declared on the front flyleaf that he purchased the book on 20 September 1676 for 18 lire of Modena along with the untraced Shefa ṭal (Hanau 1612) – from the seller Yitshak son of Samue’el Oka (this is likely the Italian rendering of the Hebrew surname אוקא) of Prague.  This Yitshak is totally unknown to the scholars, though he is clearly named. Graziano also purchased from this Yitshak and from rabbi יהודא טיפליץ Yehuda Ṭipliṣ (Töplitz) son of Ya‘akov from Praga the only edition of ‘Emek ha-Melekh, printed in Amsterdam in 1648 (now in Jerusalem, National Library of Israel, shelf-number 75A1003). He paid for it a golden doppia on 20 September 1676.[8] It is possible that “Praga” does not refer to Prague, the Czech capital, but to Praga, a small, historic town which was attached to Warsaw in 1791. On the other hand, Graziano may have written פראגא and not the more usual פראגה perhaps because he simply transcribed it in Hebrew as it appears in Italian. Certainly, during the 17th century, Modena was a well-known and popular intellectual center frequented by scholars, moving even from abroad and in particular from Prague. On 8 August 1674 Graziano bought another book from from Y. Töplitz: the chronicle Tsemaḥ David (Prague 1592) for 12 paoli. This book is now in the Civic Teresiana Library of Mantua (shelf-number II.D.6).[9]

We do not know how Graziano’s volumes came to Kaufmann despite some signs of later owners that appear on books that belonged to him, because in turn those traces are unclear. On the title page of Y. Isserlein’s Be’urim, Venice 1519 (Kaufmann B 101) there is also the cursive Hebrew signature in Ashkenazi script, possibly datable to the 17th-century, of a Mosheh Lifshits – whose name and last surname are too common to identify him for sure – but apart from the censor’s note by friar Luigi da Bologna written in 1601 at the end of the book, nothing else is visible.

Lastly, according to the ms. Guenzburg 343, f. 125b, p. 24, Graziano bought a copy of Leshon limmudim (Constantinople, 1542, Kaufmann B 394) from the polyglot Christian Hebraist cavalier Antonio Calori, for two and a half Modenese lire, along with two books not kept in the Kaufmann collection: Livyat ḥen (Mantua 1557), and Sefer ‘Arugat ha-bośem, printed in Venice in 1602 (Kaufmann B 645 is a different copy). A. Calori had a valuable library, from which Graziono purchased 33 Hebrew books (including two incunables) and five Hebrew mss from him in the 1650s.

Other Emilian owners

Leaving Modena and Graziano, we come to Carpi, in the province of Modena. A Hebrew-Latin copy of Kalendariū Hebraicum by the German Humanist Sebastian Münster (1489-1552), Basel 1527 (Kaufmann B 286; only edition), belonged to the Catholic order of the Capuchins of Carpi. Maybe this is the reason why the Lutheran author’s name has been erased (but not from his “Epistola nuncupatoria”, nor from p. 1); even the place of printing, the Protestant city of Basel, has been erased (but not from colophon). One can notice that unidentified hands wrote rare Latin glosses on the Hebrew part of the text (as well as on the Latin part) and many cursive Hebrew marginal annotations and calculations on the Hebrew text, and added some Hebrew leaves.

At the end of the second volume of the Frankfurt am Main 1699-1700 edition of Sefer rav Alfas (Kaufmann B 73.2) there is a Hebrew signature by Yitshak son of the honorable teacher and rabbi Mordekhai Soliani followed by his worn-out 17th-century Italian signature “Isac di Marco Sogliani”. One might guess that he lived in Reggio Emilia during the eighteenth century, comparing the Hebrew owner’s note on Kaufmann B 73.2 with the Hebrew calligraphy on the title page of the fourth volume of a copy of the Fürth 1741 edition of Mishnah (in the Biblioteca comunale Teresiana of Mantua, shelf-number I.A.1), which is very similar: “Yiṣḥaq Soliani of Reggio 5544 from Creation [C.E.: 1784] [son] of Mordekhai Soliani, may his Rock keep him and grant him life”.[10]

A certain Refa’el Rovigo presumably lived in Reggio, too. He signed Tiqqun Shovavim, a group of penitential prayers that Mosheh b. Mordeḵay Zacuto (ca. 1620-1697) published in 1674 in Mantua (Kaufmann B 1043; first edition). Information about R. Rovigo is very sparse. In the Hebrew register (at Centro Bibliografico dell’Unione delle Comunità Ebraiche Italiane of Rome[11]) listing the 25 circumcisions made during the years 1730-1733 by Natan b. Shelomoh Kohen of Reggio Emilia, we read that Refa’el Rovigo on 19 June 1731 was sandak in Reggio of Shemu’el, son of a certain Yishma’el Liuṣi (Liuzzi)[12]. This Refa’el Rovigo is not to be confused with Refa’el Mikha’el Rovigo, father of the known kabbalist and Sabbatian Avraham Rovigo of Modena (c. 1650-1714), as some sources alleged.[13]

The same Hebrew inscription as in Kaufmann B 1043, “Higia‘ le-ḥeleq na‘aleh k.m.ha.R. Refa’el Rovigo” can be found on the title page of six auctioned Hebrew books:

1) The first edition of the ethical Beit Midot by the Roman scholar Yeḥi’el b. Yequti’el Anav, printed in Constantinople in 1511; sold in New York on 4 December 2003[14]

2) The second edition with commentaries of Sha’are Dura, a rabbinic code on ritual salting, dietary and menstrual laws and more, by the German Yiṣḥaq b. Me’ir of Düren, Venice 1548; sold in New York on 7 November 2019. (The same copy had already been auctioned and sold there on 18 December 2008)[15]

3) The third edition of Toldot Yitsḥaq by Y. Qaro, that is a concise Torah commentary, Riva di Trento 1558; it was sold in New York on 27 October 2010[16]

4) The first edition (Cremona 1576) of Yosef Lakaḥ – a commentary on the Book of Esther – by the Greek physician Eli‘ezer Aškenazi (1512-1585), rabbi of Cremona; whose incomplete copy was sold on 11 July 2016 in Jerusalem with three other 17th-century Hebrew books[17]

5) The first edition (Venice 1697) of Darkei no’am, a collection of responsa by the Egyptian rabbi Mordekhai b. Yehudah ha-Levi (ca. 1600- ca. 1684); sold with six other books of responsa in Jerusalem on 24 June 2010[18]

6) The only edition (Venice 1730) of Meliṣ Yotser, explanations of the penitential liturgy written by the Paduan rabbi Isaia Romanin (1690/1695-1769); sold in Jerusalem on 8 April 2019.[19]

Inside the back cover of 1698 Amsterdam edition (Kaufmann B 634) of ‘En Yiśra’el, one can read the owner’s penciled cropped note of another Jew from Emilia: “Giuseppe Fin[zi] [?] di Correggio … … 1839”. Maybe he was Giuseppe Finzi buried in the Jewish cemetery of Correggio (near Reggio Emilia). G. Finzi was a son of a Samuele Finzi and died on 21 June 1885 at 70.[20] It is less likely that the person who signed this popular book is Giuseppe Finzi, son of Salomone, born on 19 April 1828 and died on 24 October 1902.[21]

The above-mentioned Menorat ha-Ma’or by Y. Aboab (Kaufmann B 498) was also owned in 1859 by a Pio son of Abramo Finzi. Considering that on the title page there is a Hebrew purchase note possibly belonging to the 18th-century, by an undetermined Binyamin Ben Ṣiyyon David of Ferrara, perhaps the owner of Kaufmann B 498 could be a landowner Pio son of Abramo Finzi born in Ferrara. In the years 1887-1888, when his father Abramo was already dead, Pio was a secretary and counsellor in the Banca Mutua Popolare of Ferrara. In 1889, he wrote articles in the “Gazzetta di Ferrara” in which he advocated the use of the Monte di Pietà of Ferrara also for a pawn loan on behalf of raw hemp traders; they would leave their products in Monte di Pietà warehouses. His proposal was refused.[22]

[1] Ms. Guenzburg 343 in the Russian State Library of Moscow, ff. 116v-131r, 148r-154v, corresponding to pp. 6-35, 69-86

[2] The Jewish Encyclopedia, VI, New York, Funk & Wagnalls, 1904, p. 84; Salomone Jona, Abraham Salomon Graziani, poète hébreu du XVII siècle, “Revue des études juives”, III, 1882, 4, p. 119; M. Perani, Il manoscritto ebraico come fonte per la storia sociale degli ebrei, “Materia Giudaica”, IX, 2004, 1-2, pp. 81 e 91; Marisa Allocati Càssola, Una famiglia di ebrei erranti: i Graziani da Ascoli a Modena 1604-1871, “Materia Giudaica”, XV-XVI, 2010-2011, pp. 519, 522-524.

[3] (on f. 123r, p. 19 of the cited ms. Guenzburg 343)

[4] An additional purchase from Teglio not listed in MS Guenzburg 343, is a collection of responsa by Mošeh b. Avraham Provinṣali, acquired on 23 March 1649 – now cataloged as MS. Mich. Add. 36 at Oxford, Bodleian Libraries; Graziano’s note is on f. 18r.

[5]   Menahem Shabbetai recorded a list of 30 items (manuscripts and books) of Yitṣḥak b. Shemu’el Sanguini sold in Modena to Graziano from Sanguini’s widow Ṣipporah and his heirs (See MS Guenzburg 343, f. 127v, p. 28). Fifty Hebrew books owned by the merchant Isach Sanguini (also called Isaac Sanguine and Isacco Sanguineti) were sequestered in Modena in 1636, and himself arrested on the order of the Inquisition, cf. M. Perani, Confisca e censura di libri ebraici a Modena fra Cinque e Seicento, pp. 305-307, 319 (note 74), in L’Inquisizione e gli ebrei in Italia; a cura di Michele Luzzati, Roma; Bari, Laterza, 1994. Maybe he was the mentioned Yiṣḥak b. Shemu’el Sanguini, although the list in Moscow and the one in Archivio di Stato di Modena. Inquisizione, Causae Hebraeorum, busta 247, fascicolo 25, do not match but of course the confiscated volumes might not constitute the full library of I. Sanguini.

[6] The two corresponding Kaufmann items, B 334 and B 416, did not belong to Graziano. The first copy has no trace of  usage, the second one was owned by Menaḥem Qarmi. The absence of a patronymic and a place does not allow to identify with certainty M. Qarmi. He owned more books kept in the Kaufmann collection, including the above- mentioned Kaufmann B 415, and two manuscripts showing his basic signature: 1) the 16th-century Ms. Kaufmann A 170, i.e. the Talmudic Zera‘ Avraham (“The seed of Abraham”) by Avraham b. Menaḥem Rovigo (b. 1504), a controversial rabbi of Ferrara; 2) the Ms. Guenzburg 327, which is an 18th-century Leḥem ha-Panim (“Showbread”) by Yiṣḥaq b. Šemu’el Levi Valle (d. 1680), rabbi in Verona and Modena, discussing various passages of the first section of Šulḥan ‘Aruḵ by Y. Qaro titled Oraḥ Ḥayyim (“Way of Life”).

[7] Laura Graziani Secchieri, «In casa d’Amadio Sacerdoti lui medesimo d’anni 35». Il censimento del ghetto di Ferrara del 1692, in Ebrei a Ferrara. Ebrei di Ferrara. Aspetti culturali, economici e sociali della presenza ebraica a Ferrara (secc. XIII-XX). Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi (Ferrara 3-4 ott. 2013) Fondazione Museo Nazionale dell’Ebraismo Italiano e della Shoah; a cura di Laura Graziani Secchieri, Firenze, Giuntina, 2014, p. 102; Federica Francesconi, Invisible Enlighteners. The Jewish Merchants of Modena, from the Renaissance to the Emancipation, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021, pp. 131, 138, 143, 145-146, 281 (note 21).

[8] A doppia was a coin initially with a value of two gold scudi minted in Italy from the mid-16th century to the beginning of the 19th century.

[9] Giulio Busi, Libri ebraici a Mantova. Volume primo. Le edizioni del XVI secolo nella biblioteca della Comunità ebraica, Fiesole, Cadmo, 1996, pp. 101-102, no. 120; M. Allocati Càssola, p. 523. The paolo was a silver pontifical coin.

[10] G. Busi, Libri ebraici a Mantova. Volume secondo. Le edizioni del XVII, XVIII, e XIX secolo nella biblioteca della comunità ebraica, Fiesole, Cadmo, 1996, no. 424, p. 270.

[11] Previously kept at the Library of the Collegio Rabbinico Italiano in Florence, ms. 111

[12] Circumcision no. 12 on f. 31v

[13] Gershom Scholem, Rovigo, Abraham ben Michael, in Encyclopedia Judaica, XIV, Jerusalem, Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1972, cols. 355-356; Riccardo Di Segni, Catalogue of the Manuscripts of the Library of the Collegio Rabbinico Italiano, Rome, Ramat-Gan, 1990, no. 10.18, p. 159; Angelo Piattelli, Il Registro di un Mohel reggiano del Settecento (1730-1733), “La Rassegna Mensile di Israel”, LVII, 1991, 3, pp. 490, 493, 497, 502;

[14] Kestenbaum, Auction 21. Hebrew Printed Books and Manuscripts. Selections from the Rare Book Room of The Jews’ College Library, London, New York, 2003, lot 19, <https://www.kestenbaum.net/auction/lot/auction-21/021-019/>;

[15] Kestenbaum, Auction 42. Fine Judaica. Hebrew Printed Books, Manuscripts, Graphic & Ceremonial Art, New York, Kestenbaum, 2008, lot 176, p. 45, <https://www.kestenbaum.net/auction/lot/auction-42/042-176/>; Kestenbaum, Auction 85. Fine Judaica. Printed Books, Manuscripts, Graphic & Ceremonial Art, New York, Kestenbaum, 2019, lot 162, p. 80, <https://www.kestenbaum.net/auction/lot/Auction-85/085-162/>.

[16] Kestenbaum, Auction 49. Fine Judaica, Hebrew Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters and Graphic Art, New York, Kestenbaum, 2010, lot 202, p. 49, <https://www.kestenbaum.net/auction/lot/auction-49/049-202/>;

[17] Kedem, Auction 51. Part I. Books Chassidism Manuscripts Rabbinical Letters, Jerusalem, Keterpress Enterprises, 2016, lot 41, p. 31, <https://www.kedem-auctions.com/en/content/four-books-17th-century-lacking-copies>;

[18] Kedem, Auction 10 – Books, Manuscripts, Rabbinical Letters, Jerusalem, 2010, lot 163, p. 93, <https://www.kedem-auctions.com/en/content/collection-books-responsa>;

[19] Winner’s Auctions Ltd, Auction 113. Illustrious Personalities, Holocaust & Anti-Semitism, Historic Documents, Art, Seforim, Letters from Rabbis and Rebbes & manuscripts, Jerusalem, 2019, lot 186, < https://il.bidspirit.com/ui/lotPage/source/catalog/auction/5933/lot/23774?lang=en>;

[20] Il cimitero ebraico di Correggio. Le iscrizioni in ebraico; a cura di A. Contri e Gabriele Fabbrici, Correggio, Comune di Correggio, 2007, pp. 27-28. The Hebrew tombstone, a little corroded by time, of Giuseppe Finzi is visible here <https://bbcc.ibc.regione.emilia-romagna.it/pater/loadcard.do?id_card=231486>.

[21] This information is taken from <https://bbcc.ibc.regione.emilia-romagna.it/pater/loadcard.do?id_card=231516>.

[22] “Bollettino ufficiale delle società per azioni”, VII, 1899, 14, pp. 93-96, 101; Pietro Sitta, I Monti di Pietà in Italia (a proposito del secondo Congresso nazionale delle opere pie di Firenze), Roma, Tip. dell’Unione cooperativa editrice, 1893, p. 21.

by Fabrizio Quaglia

This is the first in a series of posts by Fabrizio Quaglia on his ongoing work collecting Footprints and other data from the collection of David Kaufmann, now at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. As Quaglia notes, the collection is multilayered, revealing libraries within libraries.

Like a traveler crossing a world of old papers, I am working on the provenance of the Hebraica and Judaica 15h-18th century volumes of the collection that belonged to the great Hebraist David Kaufmann (1852-1899) and is currently in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. I embarked in a journey to the past through the sources and stories that are found behind those books.  Books that are not very rare or that do not have a highly relevant content become interesting precisely because of the name of their distinguished collectors, some of them today forgotten by the historians while others are completely unknown to bibliographers. Occasionally I stumbled on items that are now missing (although available on microfilm), but my descriptions hopefully perhaps will permit their return.

My two-year job began in September 2022, and it is divided in two parts. The first consists of 250 books, fully digitized in REAL-R – the digital repository of the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books and the Oriental Collection at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Out of 250 items, 196 show sure traces of usage, namely owners’ notes written in square and cursive Hebrew (predominantly in an Italian script) and non-Hebrew languages (Italian, German, Spanish, and Portuguese), as well as Italian and Latin signatures of Church censors, ex libris and annotations. The remaining amount has come down to us in a partial way. For example, in some cases we only have the first name of an owner, while his surname and possible place of residence have been rendered illegible. In several cases, there are anonymous glosses in the books. We have also lost information in rebinding, where flyleaves and boards might have once told us about ownership.

In this post the focus will be on the books with the most significant provenance, where we have identified new owners that had not been found in previous surveys of the collection. Brief biographical sketches will accompany the stories of these books on their journeys to their current home.

The Mantua Connection

Marco Mortara (1815-1894)

The historical nucleus of David Kaufmann’s collection contains books and manuscripts once owned by Marco Mortara (1815-1894), rabbi of Mantua since 1842. Kaumann purchased these books from Marco’s third son, the jurist Aristo (1857-1922). At this point 123 Kaufmann Hebrew books have been identified as from Mortara’s collection, with the distinctive printed stickers with red frame and inscription “ex libris M. Mortara” on the spine of the volumes. A few autograph owner’s notes, and often abbreviated bibliographic data in his handwriting, also reveal a Mortara origin.[1] [figure 1] Kaufmann visited Mortara’s library, one of the finest private libraries in Europe, spanning theological, literary and scientific texts, during two trips to Italy. His first visit was in the summer of 1877, when he arrived to collect the books of the Italian Jewish scholar and poet Lelio Della Torre (1805-1871) from Padua for the Rabbinical Seminary of Budapest. Kaufmann’s second visit was on April 1881, on his honeymoon with Irma Gomperz (1854-1905), the scion of wealthy Budapest family. It was a quick sale [figure 2]. Only four postcards from Mortara remain from the communications between Kaufmann and Mortara, and they are preserved in the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People in Jerusalem (David Kaufmann, Nachträge, P 181). Three postcards were written in Hebrew and one in French, on 28 September 1883, 12 February 1884, 16 November 1884, and 7 June 1885.[2]

Samuel Vita Dalla Volta (1772-1853)

Kaufmann probably knew that Mortara’s library was formed from the library of Dr. Samuel Vita Dalla Volta (1772-1853). Mortara used to point out to his illustrious Italian and foreign correspondents the importance of Dalla Volta’s collection. On 4 September 1852, Mortara wrote to his former teacher at the Rabbinical College of Padua, Samuel David Luzzatto (1800-1865), that among the volumes of S.V. Dalla Volta was a magnificent fifteenth-century undated edition (not in the Kaufmann collection) of textual and bibliographical relevance of the famous ‘Aruḵ by Natan b. Yeḥi’el (ca. 1035-1106).[3]

S.V. Dalla Volta seems to have been Mortara’s mentor and confidant. When Mortara left Viadana to continue his studies in Mantua his family entrusted him to the care of Dalla Volta (Mortara’s father,  Giuseppe (1776-1853) was friendly with Dalla Volta).[4] The very learned[5] Dalla Volta was one of the richest Jews in Mantua.[6] The Dalla Voltas were continually chosen among the massari (“deputies”) who managed the ghetto.[7] In 1823-1824 Samuel Vita was a member of the Commissione di Culto e Beneficenza della Società Israelitica, a board that governed the Jewish community of Mantua,[8] and in that period out of 11 droghieri (“grocers”), nine were Dalla Voltas.[9] The relationship between the young student and the older doctor and pharmacist is documented by a group of letters written when Mortara was in Padua to attend the Rabbinical College and collected in the mss. Kaufmann A 482 and A 484.[10] Another testimony to their relationship is a dedication that Dr. Samuel Vita Dalla Volta wrote and Mortara pasted inside the front cover of his Hebrew notebook (Zikronot), filled by Mortara between 1830s and 1870s with scholarly annotations.[11]

Although Della Volta’s library was highly coveted by scholars like Moritz Steinschneider (1816-1907), Mortara claimed that he was able to purchase half of it (the other half was bought by the vice-rabbi of Mantua, Salomon Nissim, 1781-1864), including a good part of his estate, but since Mortara was constantly in very precarious financial straits it was more probably donated by Samuel Vita or by his widow Anna Jona (1786-1855) as a sign of gratitude and friendship.[12]

Sixty-seven books belonging to Samuel Vita Dalla Volta have been counted so far in the Kaufmann collection, among which 51 had belonged to Mortara. Aside from a few owner’s notes [figure 3], they are recognizable by S.V. Dalla Volta’s erudite glosses and by the Hebrew numerals that he wrote on the front flyleaves and/or the title pages of his volumes [figure 4]. The Hungarian rabbi and academic Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy (1820-1890) stated that those numerals were library-marks.[13] But Schiller-Szinessy wrongly supposed they indicated locations of books in the library of Samuel Volta’s father, Leon Samuel Dalla Volta (1730-1801), a pharmacist and grocer and important member of the community of Mantua, since at least two books (Kaufmann B 832 and Kaufmann B 1011) were printed after his death (respectively in 1824 and 1805). After comparing the calligraphy of S.V. Dalla Volta to the mentioned Hebrew numbers, it seems reasonable to suppose that they indicate the book placements in his library, by shelf, bookcase, and book number. Their later owners – Mortara and Kaufmann – had different handwriting; in addition, Mortara inscribed his own shelf-numbers on the spines of the volumes [figure 5].

Sanson Sacerdote Modon (1679-1727)

S.V. Dalla Volta wrote that some items of his collection came from the heirs of his fellow citizen, the rabbi and poet Sanson Sacerdote (Cohen) Modon (1679-1727). This included Sacerdote Modon’s annotated Hebrew and Italian books and manuscripts, including texts in French and Spanish.[14]

The family of Sanson Cohen Modon (also Modone) was of Greek origin and since the end of the 16th century settled in Mantua, where it became one of the richest of the ghetto. Sanson obtained the lower rabbinic degree of ḥaḵam in 1721 and was nominated community scribe in 1722; he was also the secretary and chancellor of his Jewish community and member of the rabbinical court of Mantua. Sanson Cohen Modon was an important collector of Jewish books, whose traces lead to public libraries spanning three continents. Included among these books are least four Hebrew incunables and sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Hebrew books, often first editions. The Kaufmann collection holds at least six Hebrew books

(and around twenty manuscripts) formerly owned by S. Sacerdote Modon [figure 6], but there are bound to be more. An excellent example of these ownerships is the Be-šem Qadmon, Venice 1596 – a guide to the abridged rules of Hebrew grammar poetically expressed by the Talmudist Mošeh b. Avraham Provinṣali (Moisè Provenzali; 1503-1576), chief rabbi in Mantua (Kaufmann B 213; only edition) – which shows signs of use by S. Sacerdote Modon, S.V. Dalla Volta (through his father Leon Samuel), M. Mortara (and by an identified Raḥel Norṣi, probably a Rachel Norsa of Mantua).

Additional Dalla Voltas

The Kaufmann collection owns additional volumes of Mantuan origin. The rabbinical responsum of the physician of Verona Šelomoh ha-Levi, printed in Amsterdam in 1731 (Kaufmann B 975) – was acquired for one lira in 1782 by Ya‘aqov Ḥayyim mi-Lavolṭah of Mantua. He may have been the shopkeeper Jacob Vita Dalla Volta (1765-1847), son of Iseppe Benedetto Dalla Volta (1732-1809) and Ester Dalla Volta. Iseppe Benedetto was a brother of the abovementioned Leon Samuel Dalla Volta. In 1798 Jacob Vita married his cousin Rachele (1775-1847), daughter of L.S. Dalla Volta, thus becoming a brother-in-law to Dr. Samuel Vita Dalla Volta. On the title page of Kaufmann B 975 there are the deleted Hebrew numerals ‘ג’ כ’ ב  that, as stated above, correspond to shelf-marks of S.V. Dalla Volta’s library (there is also the Mortara sticker with bibliographical data inscribed by him). But Jacob Vita was not the only Dalla Volta with this name who lived in Mantua in 1782, the year of purchase of this small book. Another Jew called “Jacob Vitta Volta” (so in the Italian documents) was born in Mantua, in 1751, son of Salvador and Anna Ricca, and there he died in 1795.

In turn, a certain Ziporà gave birth on 1 January 1782 to Salomon Jacob Raffael, son of the late “Jacob Vita Volta”. To make matters worse, the dated signature “Iacob Vitta Volta 1764” appears on f. 1v of the incomplete third volume of a Torah at the Civic Library of Verona (shelf-number III.b.8), the Nevi’im Aḥaronim (“Latter Prophets”), Venice 1740. We cannot be sure whether he is the same man described here, since the Verona library also preserves a commented copy of the extremely popular ethical work Sefer Menorat ha-Ma’or by the early 14th century Spanish Talmudist and kabbalist Yiṣḥaq Aboab, published in Frankfurt am Main in 1743, signed in Italian by “Salvador Dalla Volta Dr. a Verona”, “David Dott. Dalla Volta” and “Prospero Dalla Volta” (shelf-number II.a.20) who were presumably members of a family not to be confused with the Dalla Voltas of Mantua. Perhaps “Iacob Vitta Volta” belonged to the Veronese branch of it.[15]

Abramo Colorni (ca. 1544-1599)

One of the most remarkable books coming from Mantua is surely the Ohel Mo‘ed Venice 1548 (Kaufmann B 33; only edition), by Šelomoh b. Avraham b. Šemuʼel of Urbino (end of the 15th-century-beginning of the 16th-century), that was in the possession of the Mantuan Jew Abramo Colorni; ca. 1544-1599) [figure 7]. The contemporary binding of this book shows profiles of Latin classical authors (like Virgil, Cicero and Ovid) and virtuous inscriptions (i.e. “Iusticia” and “Spes”) that almost seem unsuitable for a lexicon on Biblical synonyms. Colorni was immersed in the culture of the world around him, and so it is possible that this is his original binding [figure 8].

As a young man, Abramo received a courtier-like education, and he worked for the Gonzagas as an alchemist, an inventor, a military architect and a creator of amazing fireworks. Colorni became famous outside Mantua as an engineer and mechanic, a mathematician, an archaeologist and a builder of clocks, and even as a conjurer and magician. Beginning in 1578 he started serving in the House of Este in Ferrara, and in April 1588, he left Ferrara for Prague. It was in Prague, in the service of emperor Rudolph II (1552-1612), in 1590, where he bought this copy of Ohel Mo‘ed. Rudolph II had established a court of alchemists, astrologers, and artists of various inclinations, and Colorni’s 1593 publication of  Scotographia overo, scienza di scrivere oscuro, facilissima, et sicurissima, per qual si voglia lingua, dedicated to the emperor (see Kaufmann D 84, owned by Mortara), showed his connections to the court. Colorni would return to Mantua not before 1599.[16]

Other Mantuan owners

A copy (Kaufmann B 498) of Menorat ha-ma’or by Y. Aboab, Mantua 1563, includes the unpublished Šemen la-Ma’or, a commentary to Menorat ha-Ma’or by Malḵi’el b. Avraham Aškenazi (Malchiel Tedeschi) [figure 9] The one in Kaufmann B 498 is the only existing copy. Malḵi’el was active in the Jewish community of Mantua during the years 1611-1630, including as community scribe from 1624 until 1630. He authored a Hebrew commentary on the biblical description of the ancient Israelite Tabernacle divided in two volumes: the first is on the building of the Tabernacle in the desert, the second is on the Temple in Jerusalem and its holy vessels. Two of its four known copies are in Budapest (Kaufmann A 554 and A 555), autographs.[17]  The copy of Menorat ha-ma’or  with Ashkenazi’s glosses was purchased by Kaufman in 1882 from rabbi Rafael Natan Rabinowitz (1835-1888), a Lithuanian antiquarian bookseller and an outstanding Talmudic scholar living in Munich. Rabinowitz sold several printed volumes and manuscript to Kaufmann in the 1880s.[18]

Aškenazi also owned three Kaufmann books that are currently missing, all from Mortara’s library:

1) Sefer yoreh ḥaṭa’im ba-dereḵ we-niqra Sefer ha-Kaparot le-ḵol ha-‘over ‘averah, Venice 1589 (Kaufmann B 324)

2) the Jewish catechism Leqaḥ ṭov by the Italian philosopher rabbi Avraham b. Ḥananyah Yagel (1553-1623), with a note by Samuel Vita Dalla Volta (Kaufmann B 325)

3) the Hebrew edition of the travels of Binyamin mi-Ṭudelah (1130-1173), Freiburg-im-Breisgau 1583 (Kaufmann B 326), with another note by S.V. Dalla Volta.

It is not always easy to identify who signed a volume even if one can read the full name because of the recurrence of the same names in families bearing the same surname, as was shown with respect to J.V. Dalla Volta; nor is it less complicated to place an owner in time when his signature is undated and no location is specified. This is the case with Mošeh Yosef Ariani, who bought the Be’urim by the Ashkenazi rabbi Yiśra’el b. Petaḥyah Isserlein (1390-1460), Venice 1545 (missing Kaufmann B 253, formerly Mortara). Ariani was a Jewish surname in the Mantuan area, and Mošeh Yosef Ariani’s Hebrew note can be attributed to the late seventeenth or the early eighteenth century, but in that period, there was more than one M.Y. Ariani in Mantua. In 1691 a Mošeh Yosef, son of the late Zekaryah Ariani copied some Kabbalah works (Oxford, Bodleian Libraries, ms. Mich. 143). This M.Y. Ariani also owned a kabbalistic manuscript by Ḥayyim b. Yosef Viṭal (1542 or 1543-1620) copied around the middle of the 17th century (formerly in Jerusalem, ms. K 94 of the collection of prof. Meir Benayahu, 1924-2009). In the registers of the Jewish Community of Mantua one can read the names of two more persons called Moisè Iseppe Ariani (so was the name written in Italian documents) who lived during the same century. One of them (Mošeh Yosef son of Zekaryah?), in 1710 and again in 1716 was chosen as a sort of inspector of the local Jewish school and a manager of its library. The second one – son of Felice Ariani (d. 1775), Massaro alla Polizia and later Massaro alla Guardia notturna (a man delegate to control that no one entered or left the ghetto at night) in the years 1740-1771, and of Bona Finzi (1720-1765) – was Massaro alla Guardia Notturna since December 1775 till December 1783; he was appointed on 28 December 1786 Massaro alle Prestanze (“Deputy to the Loans”). On 5 January 1794, Moisè Iseppe Ariani was one of the three new memonim (“appointees”) of the Jewish school of Mantua, the library catalogues of which they also received. He died on 3 September 1808 65 or 66 old, husband of Bona Ventura, daughter of Isach Rietti and Gentille Monseles, who died at 77 on 5 June 1818. Each of these men called Moisè Iseppe Ariani may have owned Kaufmann B 253.[19]

In another example, a 17th-century Binyamin Ḥayyim Ṣoref who signed himself in Hebrew at the top of the title page of Me-Harere Nemerim, Venice 1599 – a compendium of methodological essays on Talmud treatises

(Kaufmann B 446; only edition) by the Italian scholar Avraham b. Šelomoh ‘Aqrah (ca. 1520- ca. 1600). Among Italian Jewry, the Hebrew surname Ṣoref became Orefice, chiefly in Mantua (registered there even as Oreffici) and Venice. Hence, he could be Benjamin Vita Orefice, but nobody with that identity has been found in any source.[20] Likewise, it can only be supposed that Šelomoh Ḥayyim Ṣiviṭah, owner of ‘Et ha–zamir, Venice 1707 (Kaufmann B 967; first edition, ex Mortara) – a collection of kabbalistic poems by Binyamin Kohen Viṭale (1651-1730) of Alessandria, in Piedmont – was the same Salomon Vita Civita who died in Mantua on 21 July 1743, where he was a significant member of the Mantuan Jewish community since 1718 till his death.[21]

I’ll conclude this section on Mantuan inscription with some words on the copy of the treatise on ethical conduct Sefer ha-Ziḵronot, Prague, 1631-1651 (Kaufmann B 235; first edition) by the Venetian rabbi Šemu’el b. Avraham Aboab (1610-1694). Its transfers of property exemplify what has been written so far, with ownership by S. Sacerdote Modon, L.S. Dalla Volta, S.V. Dalla Volta and M. Mortara to D. Kaufmann. On its title page one can see the Italian signature “Sanson Sacerd[ot]e Modone” and in cursive Hebrew when he precisely purchased this book, namely on 21 November 1702, and the Hebrew numerals ב’ נ”ו, presumably corresponding to the shelf-marks of the library of Samuel Vita Dalla Volta. At the bottom of the verso of the title page S.V. Dalla Volta wrote in cursive Hebrew on 31 October 1830 that the author of this book was Šemu’el Aboab, following what Ḥayyim Yosef Dawid Azulai (1724-1806) had affirmed, since the name of Š. Aboab is not present on the title page. Furthermore, Dalla Volta marginally glossed and entered corrections in cursive Hebrew on some pages and the usual sticker of Mortara seems to appear on the spine. In addition, inside its covers, payments for goods (clothes, shirts, shoes, pants, and jewels) were listed in Italian, including prices and accounts, and written in the 1710s by several hands (perhaps including Kohen Modon), in which members of some relevance in the Jewish community of Mantua are named. This is an example of the usage of a volume for reasons other than its content. Finally, in the left margin a different hand wrote a partially cut off Italian ownership in the form of a rigmarole: “Mant[ova] // [Questo libro è di carta / Questa car]ta è di stracio. / [Questo stracio è di lino. Questo lino] è di terra. Qu[esta terra è di Dio. Questo lib]ro è il mio; / Mantova”, namely “This book is made of paper / This paper is made of rags. / This rag is made of linen. This linen is from the land. This land belongs to God. This book is mine.” [figure 10]. It was a way of claiming the property of a book mainly practiced in the 18th and 19th centuries (but still in the 20th century) by children and adults, in Italy and elsewhere. They wrote these words or words of similar meaning in their books so that they were not stolen or that they might be returned to them if lost.[22]

[1] See Ḥoḵmatḵem we-binatḵem le-‘einei ha-‘amim = Porto astronomico, Padua 1636 (Kaufmann B 288; first edition) by the Italian mathematician rabbi Emanuel Porto (Menaḥem Ṣiyyon Kohen Rapa Porṭo; d. ca. 1660), in which Mortara referred to Bibliotheca Judaica, Leipzig, 1863, III, p. 116, compiled by the German Hebraist Julius Fürst (1805-1873), where he listed works of E. Porto. Mortara also underlined that Porto in the dedication to Porto astronomico at p. 5 declared that this was his first Italian work. We can deduce that Mortara’s ex libris was printed by the Christian lithographer Lorenzo Podestà (b. 1815) since his name it is visible on some Mortara stickers (on L. Podestà, see Giancarlo Ciaramelli, Cesare Guerra, Tipografi, editori e librai mantovani dell’Ottocento, Milano, FrancoAngeli, 2005, pp. 23, 158, 164, 185-190, 192, 198)

[2] István Ormos, David Kaufmann and his collection, pp. 131, 138, in David Kaufmann Memorial Volume. Papers presented at the David Kaufmann Memorial Conference November 29, 1999, Budapest Oriental Collection Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences; Edited by Éva Apor, Budapest, MTAK, 2002; Asher Salah, La biblioteca di Marco Mortara, pp. 150, 152, 155, 157, 159-161, in Nuovi studi in onore di Marco Mortara nel secondo centenario della nascita; a cura di Mauro Perani e Ermanno Finzi, Firenze, Giuntina, 2016.

[3] A. Salah, L’epistolario di Marco Mortara 1815-1894). Un rabbino italiano tra riforma e ortodossia, Firenze, Giuntina, 2012, pp. 127-128.

[4] Bruno Di Porto, Marco Mordekai Mortara Doreš Tov, “Materia Giudaica” XV-XVI, 2010-2011, pp. 141, 149 (note 47); A. Salah, L’epistolario di Marco Mortara, p. 11.

[5] This is how the Mantuan rabbi Giuseppe Jarè (1840-1915) defined him in a letter published on 19 August 1879 in the Italian journal “L’Educatore Israelita”, XVIII, 1880, p. 280. On the contrary S.D. Luzzatto, who knew him personally, had a different opinion of him. In a Hebrew letter of 1831 Luzzatto wrote that he had met him in Padua and that he had not seemed not very smart to him, nonetheless a good thing was that Dalla Volta was always looking for and scrolling through books, cf. A. Salah, La biblioteca di Marco Mortara, p. 159.

[6] Mario Vaini, Città e campagne tra guerre e rivoluzioni (1797-1866), in Il paesaggio mantovano nelle tracce materiali, nelle lettere e nelle arti. IV. Il paesaggio mantovano dall’età delle riforme all’Unità (1700-1866). Atti del Convegno di studi, Mantova, 19-20 maggio 2005; a cura di Eugenio Camerlenghi, Viviana Rebonato, Sara Tammaccaro, Firenze, Olschki, 2010, p. 236

[7] Paolo Bernardini, La sfida dell’uguaglianza. Gli ebrei a Mantova nell’età della rivoluzione francese, Roma, Bulzoni, 1996, p. 87.

[8] Budapest, Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Kaufmann ms. A 481, pp. 140, 214, 219.

[9] Marina Romani, Gli ebrei nel contesto socio-economico mantovano del XIX secolo, “Materia Giudaica”, XV-XVI, 2012, p. 212.

[10] A. Salah, L’epistolario di Marco Mortara, pp. 67-76, 219-224.

[11] Mauro Perani, Per uno studio dell’opera e del pensiero di Marco Mortara: recenti scoperte di manoscritti ignoti, la sua bibliografia e piste di ricerca, con un’appendice di documenti inediti, “Materia Giudaica”, XV-XVI, 2010-2011, p. 34. The Zikronot is preserved in Carbonara Po (Mantua) in the collection of Gianbeppe Fornasa.

[12] A. Salah, Steinschneider and Italy, in Studies on Steinschneider: Moritz Steinschneider and the Emergence of the Science of Judaism in Nineteenth-Century Germany; edited by Reimund Leicht and Gad Freudenthal, Leiden; Boston, Brill, 2012, p. 428; A. Salah, L’epistolario di Marco Mortara, p. 126; A. Salah, La biblioteca di Marco Mortara, pp. 152-153, 155.

[13] Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy, Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts Preserved in the University Library, Cambridge, Volume 1, Cambridge, Cambridge University library, 1876, pp. 38-39, 43-44, 101-115, 221-226, 241-244, nos. 27, 30-31, 43, 69, 72, and Volume II, 1878, pp. 72-76, no. 93.

[14] Šemu’el Ḥay mi-Lavolṭah, Toledot ha-ḥakam Šimšon Kohen Modon z.ṣ.l. iš Manṭuah (“Story of the late wise Šimšon Kohen Modon, man of Mantua”), “Kerem Ḥemed”, II, 1836, p. 114 [in Hebrew].

[15] Edizioni ebraiche dei secoli XVI-XIX, pp. 3, 8-9, nos. 2, 15, in La biblioteca della comunità ebraica di Verona. Il fondo ebraico; a cura di Daniela Bramati … [et al.]; sotto la direzione scientifica di Crescenzo Piattelli, Giuliano Tamani, Verona, Biblioteca civica, 1999; Archivio Digitale della Comunità Ebraica di Mantova. Registro 2. Morti dal 1769 al 1815, <http://digiebraico.bibliotecateresiana.it/sfoglia.php?tipo=registro&op=esplora_ric&gruppo= REG001024;REG025042&sottogruppo=REG002&offset=>, Registro 4. Nati dal 1770 al 1847, <http:// digiebraico.bibliotecateresiana.it/sfoglia.php?tipo=registro&op=esplora_ric&gruppo=REG001024;REG025042& sottogruppo=REG004&offset=0>, Registro 9. Nati dal 1750 al 1775, <http://digiebraico. bibliotecateresiana.it/sfoglia.php?tipo=registro&op=esplora_ric&gruppo=REG001024;REG025042&sottogruppo= REG009&offset=0>, Registro 17. Morti dal 1797 al 1847, <http://digiebraico.bibliotecateresiana.it/sfoglia.php?tipo=registro&op=esplora_ric&gruppo=REG001024;REG025042&sottogruppo=REG017&offset=0>, Registro 34. Registro comunità A-L, letter D, plates nos. 4 and 7, <http://digiebraico.bibliotecateresiana.it/sfoglia.php?tipo =registro&op=esplora_ric&gruppo=REG001024;REG025042&sottogruppo=REG034&offset=0>, Registro 42. Matrimoni 1773 – 1815 / Popolazione 1774 – 1815, <http://digiebraico.bibliotecateresiana.it/sfoglia.php?tipo= registro&op=esplora_ric&gruppo=REG001024;REG025042&sottogruppo=REG042&offset=0>; Budapest, Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, ms. Kaufmann A 481, pp. 133-135, 141, 143-144, 215.

[16] Biographical details are available in Daniel Jütte, Das Zeitalter des Geheimnisses. Juden, Christen und die Ökonomie des Geheimen (1400–1800), Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011, pp. 171-321.

[17] Shlomo Simonsohn, History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua, Jerusalem, Kiryath Sepher, 1977, pp. 347 (note 103), 477-478 (note 513); Archivio Digitale della Comunità Ebraica di Mantova, Sezione Antica. Etica. Volume III. Libro VI, pp. 384-385, <http://digiebraico.bibliotecateresiana.it/sfoglia.php?tipo=repertorio&op=esplora_ric&gruppo= REP001010&sottogruppo=REP003&offset=0>.

[18] Adolf Brüll, “Rabinowitz, Raphael Nathan”, pp. 186-187, in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, LIII, Leipzig, Duncker & Humblot, 1907; I. Ormos, pp. 141, 157.

[19] Archivio Digitale Della Comunità Ebraica Di Mantova. Sezione Antica. Etica; Volume III, Libro VI, pp. 8-9, Sezione Antica. Filza 238, cartella 5, <http://digiebraico.bibliotecateresiana.it/filze_gruppo.php?op=esplora_ric&cata=ebraici& gruppo=FIL238>, Registro 9. Nati dal 1750 al 1775, Registro 16. Morti dal 1816 al 1838, <http://digiebraico. bibliotecateresiana.it/sfoglia.php?tipo=registro&op=esplora_ric&gruppo=REG001024;REG025042&sottogruppo= REG016&offset=0>, Registro 17. Morti dal 1797 al 1847, Registro 18. Morti dal 1750 al 1769, <http://digiebraico.bibliotecateresiana.it/sfoglia.php?tipo=registro&op=esplora_ric&gruppo=REG001024;REG025042 &sottogruppo=REG018&offset=0>.

[20] Vittore Colorni, La corrispondenza fra nomi ebraici e nomi locali nella prassi dell’ebraismo italiano, p. 695, in his Judaica minora. Saggi sulla storia dell’ebraismo italiano dall’antichità all’età moderna, Milano, Giuffrè, 1983.

[21] Archivio Digitale della Comunità Ebraica di Mantova, Sezione Antica. Etica; Volume III, Libro VI, p. 82.

[22] Francesco Novati, Scrittori e possessori di codici, “Il Bibliofilo”, III, 1882, 3, pp. 38-41. A Jewish use of this Italian tiritera is readable for instance on f. 291v of Cod. Parm. 1872 at the Palatina Library of Parma.