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

SOME OBSERVATIONS ON WEISZ'S CATALOGUE Catalogue no. A 246 Described vaguely by Weisz as a collection of practical Kabbalah, pp. 3-17 contain extracts from an important magical treatise attributed to the 1st century philosopher Apollonius of Tyana (called Balinas in Arabic). Moshe Idei identified this treatise as Sefer Melekhet Muskhelet based on quotations in the writings of Jochanan Alemanno, a 16thcentury Jewish mystic and philosopher residing in Italy. Idel identified extracts of this work, which is of great importance for the study of the occult in Renaissance Italy, in two MSS, one in the Bar Ilan Library and the other in the Kaufmann Collection. The copy in the Kaufmann MS was obviously written in the characteristic script of the scribe and scholar Raphael Solomon Prato, who was connected to one of Alemanno's patrons, the wealthy banker, Jehiel Pisa. Catalogue no. A 254 This important compilation of letters and treatises concerning the Shabbateans also includes, on pp. 395-407, a derush by Cardozo, Derush Megalleh Amukot, and the name of the author Cardozo is plainly written in Latin characters in the heading. For some reason. Weisz ignored the attribution and listed the treatise by its title as an anonymous work. Catalogue no. A 259 Weisz's description of this MS includes only a selection of the treatises in the MS. Among those he neglected to include or to identify the author: Abraham Gikatilla's Sefer ha-Nikkud (pp. 51-64), the beginning of Abraham Abulafia's Or ha-Sekhel (pp. 64-66; 133-140), and part of his Imre Shefer (pp. 109-132; 165-168), Ibn Ezra's Sefer Moznaim (150-157) and a unique MS of Yom Tov Lippman Muelhausen's commentary on Job and his commentary on Sefer Yezirah (bound together on pp. 211-239). Philosophy Catalogue nos. A 266=289 The same MS, a collection of various treatises, mainly popular philosophical and ethical texts, is described twice by Weisz, once in entry no. A 266 and again in no. A 289. The two descriptions are similar but not identical. Catalogue no. A 290 This treatise, a critique of philosophy, was described by Weisz as an anonymous work. Gershom Scholem identified the author, Joseph Ashkenazi, in his article in Tarbiz, 28 (1959) from an Oxford MS, which Neubauer catalogued as an anonymous work. Needless to say, Scholem did not mention this MS. 23