11 Oct 89                      JUDAIC STUDIES #25         12 Tishre 50 BS"D
Connecting geographically  otherwise disparate groups with a common
interest in the study of Judaica.             Edited by Y. Greenbaum

CONTENTS

1) Dating a Document
2) More Detail on Penn MSS

1) Dating a Document

In this case, the document in question is the previous newsletter.
Ye olde editor sheepishly admits to not having changed the year in
last week's letter. My apologies to the new year, and to anyone
for whom I might have created a bibliographic ghost.

2) More Detail on Penn MSS

From: KRAFT@PENNDRLS Date: Thursday, 12 October 1989 1828-EST

The materials resident in the main Library (catalogued by Halper)
are easiest to get to - I took one of my helpers there this afternoon,
we located the box of fragments, each of which is in its own mylar
sandwich in an acid-free folder in a white envelope. Halper's
(I assume) hand-written/scribbled notes are also with each piece.
The card catalogue simply reproduces Halper's published section for
each fragment or set of fragments. Thus for anyone with Library
access (Dan Lasker at AnnenbergRI), you should be able to go to the
Rare Books Room on the 6th floor, ask for the specific fragment,
and view it there. I am working on getting xeroxes and/or photos
from which my helpers can type transcriptions directly into the
IBYCUS SC (alternatively, we could cart the IBYCUS to the Library
for direct transcription).

The Museum materials are less easily accessible, but I already do
have xeroxes and/or photos of them, and we have done much more work
on them over the years, as the notes will show -- and S. Goitein
published some of them as well in JQR.

As far as I know, the Library materials have not received attention
beyond what appears in Halper. Possibly individual Library fragments
have been used by particular scholars in new editions and monographs,
but I have not found any record of such work. Thus we are planning
to make provisional transcriptions of the unidentified fragments
and make them available to interested scholars. We started on this
aspect of the project today, so it should not take very long. We can
give priority to the items in which you have expressed interest, if
they are within the capabilities of my two undergraduate general honors
helpers (neither knows Arabic, so the Judeo-Arabic stuff may come out
somewhat garbled if we can't find other help).

Daniel Boyarin is especially interested in Canticles, and should
know that my colleague (and departmental chair), Ann Matter, has
regularly taught a seminar on Medieval exegesis (especially Latin)
of that work, and thus has a special interest in this material as
well. Thus I am sure she would like to know what sorts of things
you, Dan, are doing with Canticles. In any event, this information
is not meant to suggest that we will have any hesitation in getting
your further information on the texts! They have sat here in their
loneliness too long.We need all the help we can find.

David Blumenthal, one of our alumni (want to make a contribution
to the old alma mater for work on the Hebrew MSS? Wouldn't that
blow the minds of the development people!), asks about the
"pseudo-language" category for three Museum fragments. Well,
the few "experts" who have looked at the fragments over the years
(myself included) have not been able to identify the writing, and
suggest that it may simply be the work of someone who wanted it
to look like mysterious writing, for whatever reason (to sell it to
dealers and their customers?). I am not completely satisfied with
that "seat of the pants" explanation, and have for years planned
to publish an article with pictures of these and other fragments
that contain clear but unidentified "writing" on them. But you do
have to see it! I can send xeroxes. Details on the other Museum
fragments are now available in electronic form on IBYCUS, although
I am not sure how the Hebrew will come out when we turn it into
ASCII for transmission. Probably it will need some "filtering."
But the English descriptions will be readable enough. And I can
print it all up nicely, if you want to wait for the other kind
of mail! Unfortunately, the Hebrew underwriting on the "pseudo-
language" pieces is very faint and broken.

I know this is only a start towards answering your detailed
questions, but it does let you know where things stand at this
moment. Please feel free to follow up with specific requests and
suggestions -- being aware that my interests and good intentions
are virtually unbounded but my time is severely constrained!

Bob Kraft (CCAT)