É. Apor (ed.): A Scheiber-könyvtár katalógusa / Catalogue of the Scheiber Library.

Menahem Schmelzer: Scheiber professzor szeretett könyvei

last century or from this century, but its scale is indeed wide, ranging from America to Israel. Numerous rarities dating from this period are to be found therein, which Alexander Scheiber acquired through his excellent relations. With this volume, the reader can now possess the Catalogue of the Scheiber Library, the result of three years' work. For this task, the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences received the material support of the Soros Foundation and the help of Professor Károly Czeglédy, a friend of the late Professor Alexander Scheiber, without whose personal presence and professional advice this publication would never have been realized. The work demanded an extensive knowledge of languages, together with a librarian's expertise, and acquaintance with Hebrew, Jewish and theological studies. It was with these considerations in mind that the members of the team came together. In the course of preparing the short-title catalogue - bearing in mind international norms - we focussed on practical objectives, sometimes at the expense of strict consistency. Regarding the nature and extent of the collection, it was not deemed necessary to separate the Hebrew elements from those written in European languages, and the Hebrew works are generally located according to the author's name. In the case of proper names, we generally followed the author's usage, or else the Encyclopaedia Judaica served us as a standard just as it did for placing the components of multiple names. On transliterating the Hebrew words, our principal aims were again practical, but we were also compelled to use simplifications by the fact that printing techniques limited the use of diacritical marks. In our transliterations, we established the following letters and letter formations (following the order of the Hebrew alphabet): 0, b/v, g, d, h, w, z, h, t, y, k, 1, m, n, s, 0, p/f, s, q/k, r, s, sh, t; a, e, i, o, u. In the case of vowels, we did not indicate vowel length. Motivated by the desire to render our Catalogue as lucid as possible, we have even contravened the strict rules of grammar in some cases, e.g. by using be-Yerushalayim instead of birushalayim. The alphabetically ordered list is supplemented by indexes of names, subjects and titles. The Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences administers the Scheiber Library as a special collection, its materials remaining at the disposal of researchers in the reading room of the Oriental Collection, but unavailable for loan. This is necessitated by the Library's unique value, but also by the poor quality of the paper in many publications, which would not sustain being copied in most cases. Although it can now be regarded as a completed whole, the Library remains nevertheless a living entity: it lives on in the important periodicals which continued after 1985 and which the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences continues to procure; and it lives on in the work of researchers. Éva Apor