The Catalogue of Genizah Fragments

The Lieberman Institute has undertaken to produce a modern computerized
database listing the holdings of all the major collections of Cairo
Genizah fragments in the world.  The first stage of the project has
been to catalogue the Elkan Nathan Adler (ENA) Genizah Collection at
The Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

The ENA Genizah Collection comprises some 40,000 fragments, out of
some 250,000 Genizah fragments that are held in libraries throughout
the world (the majority are found in the Taylor Schechter Genizah
Collection at Cambridge, England, which has also initiated its own
computerized catalogue).  Since the material in the Genizah represents
the vast gamut of religious, secular, and personal literature of the
Jews, it was decided that the Lieberman Computer Catagoue would focus
primarily in this stage on halakhic and aggadic material (Mishnah,
Talmud, Midrash, other rabbinic literature, codes, responsa, and
commentaries) for purposes of extensive treatment and identification.
Fragments in the other areas are being divided into topical
classifications and given full physical descriptions that will assist
specialized scholars in identifying them in the future.

The project is using a bi-lingual version (Hebrew-English) of dBase IV,
for which a customized program has been written configuring a database
of 32 fields.  The data recorded includes: shelf number, main entry
(author, if known), bibliographic description (title or specific type
of work), topic (general category of genre), people amd works mentioned,
and samples of text.  In addition, a full physical description of the
fragment is given, including:  material, number of leaves, number of
lines, condition, dimensions (overall and of the text portion). The
existence of vocalization and cantillation is noted.



A query for information may require the listing of all fragments of a
specific work, or all those by a specific author, or any of the above
fields in a combined format.  In addition, scholars will be able to
locate heretofore unidentified joins between fragments of the same
manuscript, by searching the fields of the graphic descriptions alone.
Upon completion of the halakhic aggadic catalogue it will be possible
for those fragments quoting or dealing with a specific source (e.g.
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Baba Qamma, folio 30a) to be retrieved,
as well.

Besides affording the opportunity to do interactive searching, the
final output of the project will result in topical lists (e.g., all
liturgical fragments), and an overall listing of the entire collection,
which may be disseminated among other institutions and individuals
involved in Genizah cataloging.  It is also hoped that the initial
phase of the project, to be completed by December 1990, will provide
a complete catalogue of the halakhic and aggadic material contained
therein.

The Genizah Cataloging Project, begun in 1986, is coordinated by Dr.
Neil Danzig at The Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. The project
was awarded a partial funding grant by the National Endowment for the
Humanities for 1987-90, and employs one full time and several part-time
catalogers, as well as consultants in Judaeo-Arabic, paleography, and
other specialized fields.