4 Oct 89 JUDAIC STUDIES #24 5 Tishre 49 BS"D Connecting geographically otherwise disparate groups with a common interest in the study of Judaica. Edited by Y. Greenbaum CONTENTS 1) U of Penn Mss 2) Union List of Monographs 1) U of Penn Mss Our readership has been honored with the following communication: From: KRAFT@PENNDRLS Date: Thursday, 28 September 1989 2144-EST I found the most recent Judaic Studies issue to be very informative and interesting with regard to collections of Judaic primary materials. It so happens that just this week I have finally begun to put into electronic form an inventory of Judaic sources that has been sitting on my shelves in draft form for about 15 years, covering materials in the University Museum and the Library here at Penn. These materials are almost entirely from the Cairo Geniza, and some of them have been described briefly in Halper's Catalogue (see below), but only a few of them have actually been published in full. So, in order to strike while the iron is hot, I am sending under separate cover a two-headed table of contents for the Penn materials -- the first list covers the materials in the Museum, and the second those in the Library. Let it be known that the Judaic Studies Newsletter carries the editio princeps of these lists! If there is sufficient interest, I can filter the more detailed inventory information to the electronic Newsletter as well, as soon as my assistants get it typed onto IBYCUS. Some of the ASCII codes will be ugly (vocalization, cantillation signs), but most of it will be new information. Bob Kraft CONTENTS: The University Museum Hebrew Manuscripts [contents] Museum Number Identification BIBLICAL TEXTS .01 E 16250 paper Gen 29.27b - 30.14, 31.10b-29 .02 E 16508 leather Portions of Gen. 50.17b - Ex. 3.2 .03 E 16512 leather Ex. 21.35 - 23.16 .04 E 16511 leather Ex. 37.9-15, 37.15-22 on one side Ex. 37.22-25 on reverse .05 E 16515 paper Lev. 1.4-17 .06 E 16514 leather Esther 1.12b-22 .07 E 16507 leather Ezek in Palestinian Aramaic (underwriting of palimpsest; overwriting = Bereshit Rabba) RABBINIC TREATISES .08 E 16507 leather Bereshit Rabba (overwriting of palimpsest; underwriting = Ezek in Palestinian Aramaic) .09 E 16523 paper "`Ein Yaqob" commentary .10 E 16504 paper Arabic commentary on Leviticus with Hebrew text .11 E 16520 paper Halakah--Code of Maimonides (?) PHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL TREATISES .12 E 16506 leather Arabic in Hebrew characters-- theological treatise LITURGICAL MATERIALS -- PUBLIC .13 E 16510 leather Hebrew prayer with phrases from Psalms (reverse = legal document; see below #22) .14 E 16518 paper Prayer book .15 E 16519 paper Liturgical work .16 E 16521 paper Hebrew with Arabic colophon--collection of prayers for the 9th day of Ab LITURGICAL MATERIALS -- PRIVATE .17 E 16275 leather Amulet or phylactery .18 E 16505 leather Amulet--colored inks .19 E 16513 leather Kabbalistic fragment--amuletic (?) .20 E 16524 leather Slip from hand Tefillin DOCUMENTARY MATERIALS .21 E 16509 leather Ketubah--marriage contract; dated 1719 .22 E 16510 leather Hebrew-Arabic; legal document (reverse = Hebrew prayer and verses from Psalms) .23 E 16516* paper Letter; 11th C. .24 E 16517* paper Letter; Judaeo-Arabic .25 E 16522* paper Letter; Judaeo-Arabic UNIDENTIFIED .26 E 16525 leather Cursive "pseudo-language" (see ##27-28) .27 E 16526 leather Hebrew traces (underwriting; "pseudo-language" overwriting) .28 E 16527 leather Hebrew traces both sides (one side has "pseudo-language" overwriting) * See extensive descriptions by S. D. Goitein in JQR 49 (1958/59) Note: L 5528, a collection of Tefillin cases, is not described in this inventory catalogue. CONTENTS: The Lea Library Hebrew Manuscripts [lealib] (See B. Halper, Descriptive Catalogue of Genizah Fragments in Philadelphia. Dropsie College, 1924) Halper # Library # Identification›1/ 892.1C Biblical and Related Materials›2/ 54 .10 Rashi's commentary on Gen. 41.8-23 57 .09 Kimhi's commentary on Ezek. 1.21,22; Ezek. 1.24,25 60 .06 Jewish-Arabic allegorical commentary on Song of Songs 2.1-11; 5.7-14 67 .01 Jewish-Arabic lexicon of the Bible 72 .30 Jewish-Arabic treatise on Hebrew grammar Rabbinic Material›3/ 77 .02 leath Part of Pirke Abot 1.6 - 2.3 122 .27 Book of Precepts in Jewish-Arabic 128 .21 Maimonides' Yad ha-Hazakah. Hilkot Talmud Torah 4.7-5.3 131 .11 Maimonides' Yad ha-Hazakah. Issure Bi`ah 139 .23 Compendium of Talmudic laws, probably by Samuel b. Hofni 140 .12 leath Compendium of laws on Sabbath 141 .05 Jewish-Arabic treatise on laws of Terefah 153 .25 Jewish-Arabic discussion of Talmudic subjects Liturgy 171 .29 Jewish-Arabic treatise on law and ceremonies 206 .17 Prayer book for Day of Atonement 207 .20 Jewish-Arabic directions for ritual of Hosha`na Rabba and Shemini Aseret 219 .26 Two liturgical poems, probably for a funeral 226 .08 Part of a prayer book with directions in Jewish-Arabic; Karaitic ritual for Purim--contains Esther and Psalms 230 .03 Part of Ibn Gebirol's Keter Malkut 242 .18 Part of collection of Selihot 246 .13 Part of collection of Selihot; probably belongs to Egyptian prayer book 254 .14 Part of a piyyut, based on Canticles and read on Passover 280 .15 Part of a collection of piyyutim 297 .16 Part of a collection of dirges 308 .28 Part of a long piyyut "Kabbalah and Philosophy" 429 .22 Jewish-Arabic part of ethical treatise 430 .24 Jewish-Arabic philosophical work 431 .04 Jewish-Arabic treatise; writer explains Psalm 119.33 and digresses to Psalm 8 "Medicine and Folklore" 444 .07 Jewish-Arab poemical work defending traditions of Rabbanites 456 .19 Kabbalistic remedies and cures in Hebrew and Arabic ›1/An asterisk indicates "parchment" (leather) material; all other items are paper. ›2/Halper's heading is: "Bible (Texts, Translations, Commentaries, Glosses, and Grammar)." ›3/Halper's heading is: "Talmud, Midrash, and Halakah." 2) Union List of Monographs Aleph, Israel's nationwide research library network, is planning to implement a Union List of Monographs which will provide a "quick and dirty" access to holdings in all the libraries in the network. Unlike RLIN, which clusters records with location codes in a central database, Aleph is composed of separate databases for each participating library, requiring separate searches in each library's base. The ULM will be created by a program that will dump all records with identical (or close enough to pass as a match) author/added entry, title and year fields from all records in all libraries into a single database. The reader will then be able to retrieve on these fields, to determine which libraries hold the item being searched, and then search for the full bibliographic record, if desired, in any of the holding libraries. I am currently working on a study examining the problem of control (as exemplified by RLIN's stringent authority control) vs. access (as exemplified bv Aleph's approach of "better to get it done than to get it perfect"), and I see the planned implementation of the ULM as a revolutionary step in greatly improving access in a network with relatively