Second Supplementary Catalogue of Hebrew Books in the British Library, 1893-1960 (review)

Hebrew Studies 40 (1999) 401 Reviews on-line into its ALEPH catalogue. There the records are being updated in accordance with data provided in the Supplement of Addenda and Corrigenda , where they are available for reference on an international plane. Jay Rovner Jewish Theological Seminary New York, Jv.Y 10027 jarovner@jtsa.edu SECOND SUPPLEMENTARY CATALOGUE OF HEBREW BOOKS IN THE BRITISH LIBRARY, 1893-1960. Prepared for publication by Diana Rowland Smith based on the work of David Goldstein, Cyril Moss, and others. Vol. 1, pp. xi + 588. Vol. 2, pp. 5891136 . London: The British Library, 1994. Cloth, $450.00. The British Library's collection of Hebraica has been built up over some two hundred and fifty years, dating back to the founding of the British Museum in 1753. This collection achieved world class status in 1848, with the acquisition of the library of H. J. Michael of Hamburg, and so it has remained since then. The strength of the collection and the quality of J. Zedner's Catalogue ofHebrew Books in the British Museum (London, 1867; reprinted 1964) have made a catalogue of the collection an indispensable bibliographical tool. S. von Straalen provided the first supplement, the Catalogue of Hebrew Books in the British Museum Acquired During the Years 1868-1892 (London, 1894; reprinted 1977). Despite the attempts of several scholars subsequently associated with the Hebrew Book Collection (von Straalen among them), a second supplement was never published until the appearance of these magnificent volumes which were prepared for publication by Diana Rowland Smith. A flurry of British Library publications over the last few years has been fortuitous for the provision of access to the Hebrew books and manuscripts of the Library. Among them are J. Leveen's List ofHebrew. Aramaic. and Arabic Manuscripts Believed to be Derived from the Cairo Genizah (1994); Catalogue ofHebrew Printers (ca. 1500-ca. 1900) as represented in the holdings ofthe British Museum •..reproduced from the unpublished manuscript...compiled by S. von Straalen, with indexes by Brad Sabin Hill (1995); The Catalogue of Gaster Mss. in the British Museum reproduced ...by Jacob Leveen, Joseph Rosenwasser, and David Goldstein (1996); Books Printed on Vellum in the Collections of the British Library compiled by R. C. Alston with a Catalogue of the Hebrew Books Printed on Hebrew Studies 40 (1999) 402 Reviews Vellum compiled by Brad Sabin Hill (1966). Amongst these, the Rowland Smith Catalogue, two massive volumes of detailed bibliographic descriptions of about 9000 items acquired between 1893-1960, stands out as a magnificent bibliographic guide to Hebrew printing. The chronology of this catalogue does not do justice to the dates of the books themselves. Among them are twelve incunabula, including one item printed in Rome between 1469 and 1472. Six were printed in Spain or Portugal before the Expulsion. The Library's collection of Hebrew incunabula is unrivaled in Europe today. About twelve items acquired after 1960, mostly liturgies, were snuck into the Catalogue because of their importance . In its devotion to the Hebrew book, the Library also collects non-Hebrew titles which contain a sizable quantity of matter in Hebrew or which relate directly to the books and manuscripts of its Hebrew Section. The bibliographic descriptions include the following data: the title, the title in romanized form, additional titles found on separate pages, a description of the contents, languages used where this has not been indicated in the description, pagination, publication information, size, and shelf number. The catalogue is organized according to authors' names or uniform title headings for anonymous works. Secondary access is provided by title indexes, one for Hebrew titles, another for non-Hebrew titles. The organization of the catalogue and its indices are valuable for author and title searches. Its usefulness for scholars in general would have been enhanced by the provision of a subject index. Bibliographers would have benefited from indices of publishers/printers, places, and dates. One may wonder, why, in this time of computerized bibliographies, online shared access to the collections of many libraries (in the utilities, OCLC and RLIN, the latter of which now has Harvard University Library 's records, albeit in romanized form only, and provides for searching on Hebrew text-strings and will, in...