Hebrew Studies: Papers Presented at a Colloquium on Resources for Hebraica in Europe held at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 11-13 September 1989/11-13 Elul 5749 (review)

Hebrew Studies 33 (1992) 155 Reviews deities and made them subordinate spirits. In this context he mentions Deut 32:8, but assumes, rather than proves, that the reference is in fact to lesser deities. He argues that every nation was seen to have its own divine patron, but not its own god. Sarna's incorporation of insights from Jewish classical commentators and the excursuses on important concepts and terms are other notable features of this commentary. Sharon Pace Jeansonne Marquette University Milwaukee. WI 53233 HEBREW STUDIES: PAPERS PRESENTED AT A COLLOQUIUM ON RESOURCES FOR HEBRAICA IN EUROPE HELD AT THE SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, 11·13 SEPTEMBER 1989/11·13 ELUL 5749. Diana Rowland Smith and Peter Shmuel Salinger, eds. British Library Occasional Papers 13. Pp. ix + 252. London: The British Library, 1991. Paper. £25.00. Divided into seven categories, the thirty-three papers in this volume focus on the following: (1) Resources for Hebrew Studies-(a) British Isles and (b) Collections in Europe; (2) Hebrew and Yiddish bibliography; (3) Hebrew manuscript collections; (4) Art and illumination in Hebrew manuscripts; (5) Special lecture [on codicology]; (6) Automation and cooperation; and (7) Background notes on demonstrations at the British Library. As is often the case in volumes of diverse and unrefereed essays such as Festschriften, one finds a wide span here of knowledge, erudition, sophistication , and quality. The papers range from less than two full pages and no notes to thirteen pages (including facsimiles) and fifty-two notes. The special lecture by Malachi Beit-Arie is in its own class. It runs to sixteen text pages, four pages of notes, and sixteen pages of computer printout and is the most up-to-date exposition of "The Codicological Data-Base of the Hebrew Paleography Project: A Tool for Localizing and Dating Hebrew Hebrew Studies 33 (1992) 156 Reviews Medieval Manuscripts." Most of the papers are descriptive rather than critical or creative, but there is still a range of skill in recognizing the significant and in reporting on it. This review will necessarily also be descriptive rather than critical but will attempt to call attention to that which may be unusual or not widely known. There are six articles on Hebrew resources in the British Isles and six on collections in (continental) Europe. All were written by their curators, librarians, or other staff and can thus be accepted as authoritative. The collections described, however, vary greatly in size, scope, and importance. Leeds University has the Robert Travers Herford Collection and the broad Cecil Roth Collection but little else. Altogether, there is not much in the libraries of Ireland and only a few rarities at the Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine in London. The Bodleian's collections and catalogues are well covered, and Stephen Reif has admirably described the Cambridge holdings of non-Genizah as well as Genizah materials. Diana Rowland Smith limits her survey of the British Library to its relatively unknown Genizah materials. One misses the John Rylands Library, the Valmadonna Trust, and a fuller treatment of the Kressel Collection at Yamton in Richard Judd's Oxford summary. The European collections, presented unevenly-and there could have been more or others-are the Bibliotheque Nationale, the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas in Madrid, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Kaufmann Collection and the "oriental" part of Alexander Scheiber's library), Helsinki University (to be noted because it was a Russian Empire copyright deposit library from 1828 to 1918), the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich, and Hebrew manuscript collections in Italian libraries (a comprehensive survey by Giuliano Tamani). "Hebrew and Yiddish Bibliography" is represented by a detailed description of a proposed new catalogue of the Amsterdam Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana by Emile Schrijver (which might go better in the automation category), an essay by A. K. Offenberg on the first international census of Hebrew incunabula (an expanded version appears in his Hebrew Incunabula in Public Collections [Nieuwkoop: de Graaf], 1990), a short but comprehensive survey of "Hebrew books of the Sixteenth Century in Italian Libraries" by Giulio Busi, and a note by Moshe Rosenfeld on several "rediscovered" Yiddish works previously unrecorded (but Rosenfeld does not tell us where they are...