Former Owners of Manuscripts from the Günzburg Family Collection: Identification Attempt

This article is devoted to the analysis of owners’ stamps and inscriptions on manuscripts from the Günzburg family collection stored in the Russian State Library (RSL). The author did not set out to provide exhaustive information about the previous owners, part of whom still remains unidentified. The purpose of the article is to highlight the blocks of manuscripts that were previously part of other private libraries and later were acquired by the Günzburgs, as well as to focus on the most famous former owners of books. Information about them can be discovered in the owner’s inscriptions or, less often, stamps, which are usually found on the fly-leaf or the first folio of the manuscript. Sometimes, however, you can find out who owned a particular book by studying the catalogues of private libraries that were sold out after the death of their owners. This method let to discover among the previous owners of the Günzburg manuscripts such names as Nathan Nahman Koronel, scholar and book publisher, and Fischl Hirsch, bibliophile and bookseller. Based on information from the owners’ inscriptions, we learned that a number of manuscripts from the Günzburg collection were owned by such scholars as Seligmann Baer, Elyakim Carmoly and Shlomo Dubno. Some manuscripts of the collection bear inscriptions of Parisian bookseller Menahem Lifshits with the date and information to whom this particular manuscript belonged earlier. Almost all of them originated from various private libraries on the territory of modern Italy and pertained to more or less known now Italian rabbis or bibliophiles. It is worth noting that the surnames of Italian Jewish families, such as Segre, Finzi, Foa and Travis, are more often found in the owners’ inscriptions on the manuscripts from the Günzburg library than Jewish names from other regions. Among the famous owners of Italian origin is Abraham Yosef Shlomo Graziano, who was Rabbi, scholar and poet and was known for his rather wide view of the Jewish religious laws — Halakha. Separately, it should be noted a few female names and their ownership inscriptions found among the owners of the manuscripts. The article presents the original spelling of some of the names of the owners of manuscripts.

book history, book monuments, manuscript, Günzburg, owners, stamps, owner’s inscriptions, booksellers, private libraries, bibliophiles, Russian State Library

1. Malkiel D. The Jewish-Christian debate on the Eve of Modernity: Joshua Segre of Scandiano and his “Asham Talui”, Révue des études Juives, 2005, no. 164, pp. 157—186.

2. Ivask U.G. Chastnye biblioteki v Rossii: opyt bibliograficheskogo ukazatelya [Private Libraries in Russia: An Experience of Bibliographical Index]. St. Petersburg, 1911—1912, part 1, 154 p.

3. Eisenstadt I.T. Znanie svyatykh [Knowledge about saints]. St. Petersburg, 1897—1898, 245 p. (in Hebr.).

4. Goldenberg S., Lisitsyna A.V. “This Is my Soul, the Whole Content of my Life”: About the David Günzburg Collection, Lechaim, 2014, no. 3, pp. 26—30 (in Russ.).

5. Yelon H. Poterya u vladel’tsa [A Loss to the Owner], Kiryat Sefer, 1964, no. 39, pp. 105—108 (in Hebr.).

6. Artizov A.N., Stegniy P.V. Uneasy Fate of the Baron Ginzburg Collection, Bibliotekovedenie [Russian Journal of Library Science], 2015, no. 4, pp. 52—57. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.25281/0869-608X-2015-0-4-52-57.

7. Morag S. Some Notes on Shlomo Almoli’s Contributions to the Linguistic Science of Hebrew, Interpreting the Hebrew Bible, Essays in Honor of E.I.J. Rosenthal. Cambridge, 1982, pp. 157—169.

8. Artizov A.N., Stegniy P.V. Uneasy Fate of the Baron Guenzburg Collection [Ending], Bibliotekovedenie [Russian Journal of Library Science]. 2015, no. 5, pp. 58—63. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.25281/0869-608X-2015-0-5-58-63.

9. Ruderman D.B. The World of a Renaissance Jew: The Life and Thought of Abraham ben Mordecai Farissol. Cincinnati, 1981, 265 p.

10. Lisitsyna A.V. From the Manuscript Part History of the Günzburg Collection in the Russian State library, Otechestvennye arkhivy [Domestic Archives], 2010, no. 3, pp. 38—43 (in Russ.).

11. Elyashevich B.S. Karaimskii biograficheskii slovar’ (ot kontsa VIII v. do 1960 g.). Kn. 2: Karaimy [Karaite Biographical Dictionary (From the End of the 8th Century to 1960). Book 2: Karaites]. Moscow, 1993, 238 p.

12. Description of the D. Günzburg Manuscripts Collection. Collection 71: in 2 volumes. 1980 items, Otdel rukopisei Rossiiskoi gosudarstvennoi biblioteki (OR RGB) [Manuscripts Department of the Russian State Library]. Moscow, 1957, 582 p. (in Russ.).

13. Raphaël Taurel, Geneanet. Available at: https://gw.geneanet.org/yferreol?iz=3&n=taurel&oc=0&p=raphael (accessed 19.06.2020).

14. Faber R. Seligmann Baer 1825—1897. Neue Erkenntnisse zu Leben und Werk des jüdischen Gelehrten aus Wiesbaden-Biebrich. Biebrich-am-Rhein, 2002, 56 p.

15. Berenbaum M., Skolnik F. (eds). Carmoly E., Encyclopedia Judaica. Detroit, Thomson Gale Publ., 2007, vol. 4, p. 485.

16. Spisok mnogochislennykh vazhnykh, tsennykh i pochtennykh knig... nakhodyashchikhsya v nasledstve gospodina nashego i uchitelya rebe Shlomo iz Dubno... kotorye budut prodavat’sya ... v sredu 25 tammuza 5574 g. [A List of Numerous Important, Valuable, and Venerable Books ... Inherited by our Master and Teacher Rabbi Shlomo from Dubno... That Will Be Sold ... On Wednesday, Tammuz 25, 5574]. Amsterdam, 1814, 61 p. (in Hebr.).

17. Marx A. Studies in Jewish History and Booklore. New York, 1969, 458 p.

18. Rabbi Nachman Nathan Coronel, D. Tidhar. Entsiklopediya osnovatelei i stroitelei Izrailya [Encyclopedia of the Founders and Builders of Israel]. Available at: http://www.tidhar.tourolib.org/tidhar/view/2/566 (accessed 19.06.2020) (in Hebr.).

19. Spisok rukopisei, chast’ kotorykh napisana na pergamene, chast’ — na pergamene i bumage, a takzhe tol’ko na bumage, sobrannykh rebe Natanom Koronelem, da sokhranit ego Gospod’, prozhivayushchem v svyatom gorode Ierusalime [A List of Handwritten Books, Partly on Parchment, Partly on Parchment and Paper, and from those on Paper Only, Which Were Collected by Rabbi Nathan Coronel, May the Lord Preserve Him, Inhabitant of the Holy City of Jerusalem]. London, A. Abrakhams Publ., 1871, 12 p. (in Hebr.).

20. Spisok novykh i starykh knig, a takzhe dragotsennykh rukopisei, kotorye ostavil posle sebya pokoinyi nash gospodin i uchitel’ Fishl Girsh v Berline [A List of Old and New Books and Precious Manuscripts, Which Were Left by our Deceased Master and Teacher Fischl Hirsch in Berlin]. Berlin, 1899, 129 p. (in Hebr.).

21. Salah A. La république des lettres: rabbins, écrivains et médecins juifs en Italie au XVIII siècle. Leiden, 2007, 822 p.

22. Piatelli A.M. Repertorio Biografico dei Rabbini Italiani, La Rassegna Mensile di Israel, 2010, vol. 76, no. 1/2, pp. 185—256.

23. Jacobs J., Lipkind G. Artom, Benjamin, JewishEncyclopedia.com. The Unedited Full-Text of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia. Available at: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1835-artom-benjamin (accessed 19.06.2020).

24. Haus J. Challenges of Equality: Judaism, State and Education in Nineteenth-Century France. Detroit, Wayne State University Press Publ., 2009, 230 p.

25. Toy C.H., Schwab M. Bargès, Jean Joseph Leandre, JewishEncyclopedia.com. The Unedited Full-Text of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia. Available at: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2524-barges-jean-joseph-leandre (accessed 19.06.2020).

26. Loeb I. Barges, abbé Jean-Joseph-Léandre, La grand encyclopédie. Paris, 1886, vol. 5, p. 417.

27. Berenbaum M., Skolnik F. (eds). Graziano, Abraham Joseph Solomon ben Mordecai, Encyclopedia Judaica. Detroit, Thomson Gale Publ., 2007, vol. 8, pp. 42—43.

28. Zimer I. Detali biografii evreev Italii — sovremennikov Avraama Gratsiano [Biographical Details of Italian Jews — Contemporaries of Abraham Graziano], Kiryat Sefer, 1974, no. 49, pp. 440—444 (in Hebr.).

29. Okun Ya. Rukopisnoe sobranie Avraama Iosefa Shlomo Gratsiano [Manuscript Collection of Abraham Yosef Shlomo Graziano]. Jerusalem, 1991, 284 p. (in Hebr.).

30. Malkiel D. The Jewish-Christian debate on the Eve of Modernity: Joshua Segre of Scandiano and his “Asham Talui”, Révue des études Juives, 2005, no. 164, pp. 157—186.

31. Eisenstadt I.T. Znanie svyatykh [Knowledge about saints]. St. Petersburg, 1897—1898, 245 p. (in Hebr.).

32. Yelon H. Poterya u vladel’tsa [A Loss to the Owner], Kiryat Sefer, 1964, no. 39, pp. 105—108 (in Hebr.).

33. Morag S. Some Notes on Shlomo Almoli’s Contributions to the Linguistic Science of Hebrew, Interpreting the Hebrew Bible, Essays in Honor of E.I.J. Rosenthal. Cambridge, 1982, pp. 157—169.

34. Ruderman D.B. The World of a Renaissance Jew: The Life and Thought of Abraham ben Mordecai Farissol. Cincinnati, 1981, 265 p.

35. Elyashevich B.S. Karaimskii biograficheskii slovar’ (ot kontsa VIII v. do 1960 g.). Kn. 2: Karaimy [Karaite Biographical Dictionary (From the End of the 8th Century to 1960). Book 2: Karaites]. Moscow, 1993, 238 p.

36. Raphaël Taurel, Geneanet. Available at: https://gw.geneanet.org/yferreol?iz=3&n=taurel&oc=0&p=raphael (accessed 19.06.2020).