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

RICHLER, Benjamin: Some Observations on Weisz's Catalogue of the Kaufmann Collection

BENJAMIN RICHLER the MS when hundreds of much earlier copies of Targum Onkelos are extant. If the catalogue were to describe the MS as a late anonymous Targum, it would draw some attention and sooner or later would be correctly identified. Weisz's catalogue does not fall into any of these categories; it falls into all of them. Standing on the shoulders of giants, in the words of the Talmudic proverb, it is easy to criticize the work of cataloguers of MSS of previous generations. We now have at our disposal bibliographies, catalogues and concordances that were not available a century ago, not to mention the union catalogue of almost all the Hebrew manuscripts in the world available at the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts (IMHM) in the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem now accessible on the internet, as well as the possibility to consult and compare all these MSS in one location. If we criticize Weisz's catalogue or point out errors it is not our intention to criticize the man or his efforts, merely to update his catalogue in the light of later research. As you will see, much of the criticism refers to his descriptions of kabbalah MSS which he described with only a meager bibliography available, well before Gershont Scholem and his successors began their critical research. The Kaufmann Collection is particularly rich in Halakhic works by late medieval and early modern Italian Rabbis, over 120 MSS are described in the sections devoted to Halakhah, and thirty-five of them (nos. 133-165, 581-2) include collections of responsa that are usually described in detail by Weisz on pp. 31-79 of his catalogue. Weisz listed most of the names of the responding Rabbis and often gave the dates of the responsa and sometimes the subjects, thus opening a veritable treasure house of important sources. These MSS have served and continue to serve students of 15- 17th century Italian society. They were used extensively by Kaufmann himself and more recently by Y. Boksenboim, Y. Green in his work on the Trabot family, and M. Benayahu, to name only a few. It is to be regretted, however, that Weisz did not include the names of all the authors of the responsa in the index to the catalogue. By consulting the index and not browsing through the catalogue one may be lead to believe that no writings by certain Rabbis exist in the collection, when in fact they may be numerous. For instance, anyone searching for writings of R. Nethanel Trabot would find only two items in the index, his novel lae on Psalms, Proverbs and Job and his ethical will. In fact, MS A 151 lists over thirty responsa, letters and novellae by Trabot and other items are found in MSS A 152, 155, 156, 158, 159 etc. Though Weisz tried to list all the responsa in each of the MSS he described, he permitted himself to write very brief descriptions of MSS that had already been described by Mortara in other publications and it sufficed him to refer the reader to Mortara's articles. So, there is no short cut to finding all that the Kaufmann Collection has to offer; one must not trust the index, the entire catalogue has to be perused and one must take the trouble to find the articles in which individual MSS from the collection were formerly described. 18