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 Catalogue no. A 584 Described as an anonymous collection of novellae on the Talmud, this MS contains novellae by Rafael Israel Kimhi and the author's comments on Maimonides' Sefer hciMizvot entitled Einei Yisrael. Catalogue no. A 586 Described in two words as a collection of letter forms, the volume includes copies of letters mostly by Solomon b. Isaac ha-Levi in Hebrew and Ladino, some of them sent to Palestine, and some letters by Isaac b. Solomon ha-Levi. The letters were written in the 17th century. The MS includes 268 pp. The last 50 pp. include responsa and homilies in another, later hand. * * * The Kaufmann Library includes an important collection of over six hundred Genizah fragments. These fragments served scholars from all fields and from all over the world in their research, but they were not included in Weisz's catalogue except for a brief entry, nos. A 592-594, which simply mentions that these numbers include Genizah fragments. Several partial catalogues of the Genizah fragments in particular fields such as Aramaic targum and piyyut do exist but to date no comprehensive catalogue has been compiled. Two years ago, the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences approached the IMHM with a proposal to compile just such a catalogue. With the cooperation of the Library of the Hungarian Academy, which provided new microfilm copies of the Kaufmann Genizah fragments and will undertake to publish the catalogue, and the Israel Academy of Humanities and Sciences, which has provided the IMHM with a copy of their descriptions of the poetry and liturgical fragments, a new, comprehensive catalogue is being prepared. The catalogue is being edited by Dr. Ezra Chwat of the IMHM, who was unable to accept the invitation to attend this conference for personal reasons. The first draft of this catalogue is ready and we hope that it will be submitted for publication in the near future. 26