É. Apor (ed.): David Kaufmann Memorial Volume: Papers Presented at the David Kaufmann Memorial Conference, November 29, 1999, Budapest.

ORMOS, István: David Kaufmann and his Collection

ISTVÁN ORMOS basis he made this statement. As for Krauss, he was just in the process of making a thorough investigation of the manuscript when the collection was presented to the Academy and the new owners asked him to return it without delay. Thus he was not able to carry out his plan, having been compelled to confine himself to the orders Nashim and Neziqin only. His assumption, which he seems to have based on an orthographic peculiarity occurring only in a few places, the use of an alef prostheticum before the sound/letter [s], a habit mostly characteristic of Italians, is now shared by the majority of scholars, although on the basis of additional considerations, while the view has also been advanced that the manuscript probably comes from Palestine." It was written in the tenth or eleventh century. For more details we turn now to one of our visitors: Script and form of letters closely resemble certain MSS of the Bible of eastem origin, written in the tenth or eleventh century. The MS contains comments, mostly emendations of the text, contributed by several hands. The emendations of one particular hand are constant and form the majority. The same hand also vocalized the codex. This vocalization was not inserted by the original scribe but was done probably some centuries later, when it was transferred from a vocalized copy which offered a text differing much from the Kaufmann codex. The punctator inserted these variations into the Kaufmann codex. The pointing and the emendations from the punctator display a second MS belonging to another recension. The peculiarities of the Kaufmann MS are more numerous than in any other, including most of the Geniza fragments. It has kept older forms of the Palestinian type of text and it often reflects the spoken language of second century Palestine. The Kaufmann codex is undoubtedly the oldest complete Mishna text and contains 7

0 The other two are MS Parma, De Rossi 138 (Parma, Bibliotheca Palatina no. 3173) and the MS Cambridge, Add. 470 (II) (Cambridge, University Library). The MS Parma was written around 1073 while the MS Cambridge comes from the 14th or 15th century. Michael KRUPP, Manuscripts of the Mishna. The Three Complete Mishna Manuscripts. In: The Literature of the Sages I. Editor: Shmuel Safrai. Assen/Maastricht - Philadelphia 1987. 253-254. See also Benjamin RJCHLER'S contribution to the present volume on p. 17 above. 7

1 GOLDZIHER Ignác, Kaufmann Dávid könyvtára [The Library of David Kaufmann]. (Olvasta Goldziher Ignácz r. t. az április 23-iki ülésen. [Read by ordinary member Ignácz Goldziher in the session of 23 April.] = Akadémiai Értesítő [Bulletin of the Academy] 18 (1906) 309. In: Microcard Catalogue of the Rare Hebrew Codices, Manuscripts and Ancient Prints in the Kaufmann Collection Reproduced on Microcards. Introduced by a lecture of the late Prof. Ignácz Goldziher. (Publications of the Oriental Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, IV.) Microcard catalogue of the Kaufmann Collection. Editor R. Gergely. Budapest 1959. 15. Samuel KRAUSS, Die Kaufmann'sche Mischna-Handschrift = Monatsschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums 51 (1907) 460. KRAUSS 1907. 65. KRUPP 1987. 253-254. 142