AZ ORSZÁGOS SZÉCHÉNYI KÖNYVTÁR ÉVKÖNYVE 1963-1964. Budapest (1966)
IV. Könyvtár- és művelődéstörténeti tanulmányok. - Dán Róbert: Kéziratos magyar nyelvű Talmud recenzió a XVIII. századból - A Hungarian Talmud review in manuscript from the 18. century
35. Zsoldos Jenő tanulmánya alapján. Pap Gábor jelzett munkája nem szerepel az OSzK katalógusában, Petrilc sem ismeri. -36. Hurwitz, Hermann: Sagen der Hebräer. Leipzig 1826. A Hungarian Talmud review in manuscript from the 18. century E. DÁN From the so-called Jan&OOTc/i-collection, in the Hungarian National Széchényi Library -was found a MS of 296 pages: ,,The Jewish Talmud translated from German into Hungarian by H. D. J. pastor of Nagyenyed in 1760, and copied by Borcsnyai Was Elek in 1762. b ' The history of the manuscript is relatively easy to follow. On the titlepage we read: „The discoverer Litteraty Nemes Sámuel" We know about Litteraty's travels in Transilvania from the last century for the purpose to buy antiquities. Ihis MS was bought by him about 1828—1832. The translator of the Jewish Talmud H. D. J. Hermányi Dienes József, a wellknown Hungarian anecdotist of the 18. century. But only one of his works was published: „Nagyenyedi Síró Heraklitus és hol mosolygó hol kacagó Demokritus." Bp. 1960. It is the second edition. The work mentioned above is a collection of anecdotes. We learn from his biographers, that he wrote 150 volumes, but a great part of his MSS have been lost. The present MS is presumably one of his forgotten works. Hermányi was very much interested in curiosa, as his contemporaries inform us: „he knew exemples unknown to others. . . ". He was looking for special examples and when he found one he gave a record. This Jewish Talmud came accidentaly across his way. Having got a work in his hands which contained parts of the Talmud, the great curiosa collector used the opportunity to complete his knowledge with its valuable informations. The source was Eisenmenger J. A.: Entdecktes Judenthum. It may be proved that his method of translation was as follows: he took the interesting keywords from the subjectindex and translated no more. He summarises, rephrases and makes somewhere critical xiotes, but he undoubtedly can not get freed himself from Eisenmenger''s influence. The redaction of the work follows the cronology of the Bible as a whole. The first pages deal with stories of Adam and Eve. After Adam comes Solomon, Abraham and Samson. Here the translation is contradictory. In the second half of the MS he was quite obviously guided solely by the subject-index. It is noteworthy that in the second part of the translation the stories are not taken only from the Talmud. He did not hesitate to translate it even if it did not "belong to the Talmud. But the text of the Talmud was undoubtedly of the greatest importance for Hermányi. The translation named the Jewish Talmud is not a complete work, ready for print, it is but a collection of remarks made to give hints for the collector for his sermons. The „Jewish Talmud of Hermányi had not influenced the Hungarian literature. We can say that the Talmudical influences came an other way. In the middle of the last century Edvi Illés Pál dealt with the aggadical parts of the Talmud, and Iráncsi Pap Gábor translated some tales, but he took for source Huiwitz's work „Sagen der Hebräer.'" 240
