The Reconstruction of a Sefer Haftarot from the Rhine Valley: Towards a Typology of Ashkenazi Pentateuch Manuscripts
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THE RECONSTRUCTION OF A SEFER HAFTAROT FROM THE RHINE VALLEY: TOWARDS A TYPOLOGY OF ASHKENAZI PENTATEUCH MANUSCRIPTS Judith Kogel Did medieval scribes copy books of haftarot as independent codices? This question arose after my identification of forty-nine haftarah frag- ments in the libraries of Colmar and Strasbourg that all originated from a single codex.1 The study presented here proves that they did not, but the investigation itself offered me the opportunity to examine the typology of Ashkenazi Pentateuch manuscripts, with the frequent inclusion of the Five scrolls (megillot) and the haftarot, and to locate the Colmar frag- ments in this cultural and palaeographical context. The forty-nine fragments that served as the catalyst for this study are kept in three libraries: the Municipal Library of Colmar (Bibliothèque Municipale de Colmar),2 as well as the André Malraux Municipal Library (Bibliothèque Municipale André Malraux) and the National University Library (Bibliothèque Nationale et Universitaire)—both in Strasbourg. After the Municipal Library of Strasbourg was destroyed in a fire in 1870, the city of Colmar offered the city of Strasbourg second-copies of a 1 Professor Andreas Lehnardt has also uncovered a great number of folios of haftarot, some originating from codices that could be virtually reconstructed, which has led me to believe that, indeed, such books were relatively frequent during the Middle Ages. 2 The Municipal Library of Colmar (Bibliothèque municipale de Colmar), which pos- sesses one of the richest incunabula collections in France (approximately 2000 incu- nabula) was established under the decree of November 14, 1789, a phenomenon which is known as “confiscations of the revolution.” In Colmar, as throughout France, the libraries of the monasteries, abbeys and convents in the area were gathered and consolidated into a publicly held collection. The library of the city of Colmar was created by gathering books and manuscripts previously kept in the Benedictine abbeys of Murbach and Munster; the Cistercian abbeys of Lucelle and Pairis; the Dominican convents and monasteries of Col- mar, Guebwiller and Schoenensteinbach; the Regular Canons of Marbach; the Antonins of Issenheim; the Franciscans of Rouffach and Kaysersberg; the Capuchins of Neu-Breisach, Ensisheim and Thann; the Jesuits of Ensisheim; the collegiate church of Saint Martin in Colmar, and so on. Two significant collections without religious affiliation that became part of this consolidated collection came from the libraries of the Counts of Ribeaupierre and the literary Tabagie Colmar. Francis Gueth and Louis Demézières, “La Bibliothèque municipal de Colmar,” in Trésors des bibliothèques de Colmar et de Sélestat: exposition, Église des Dominicains de Colmar, 2 juillet–30 août 1998, ed. Ville de Colmar and Sélestat, (Ville de Sélestadt, 1998). 44 judith kogel selection of valuable incunabula which are still preserved in the holdings of the André Malraux Municipal Library;3 therefore, most fragments glued to the boards of these incunabula came from Colmar and thus belong to that same collection. I would also like to emphasize that the fragments at the National Uni- versity Library include those collected by the famous Professor of Theol- ogy, Edouard Reuss. These fragments were probably removed from the incunabula that had been donated to Strasbourg by Colmar and entrusted to Edouard Reuss for identification.4 After his death in 1891, Reuss’s col- lection, including the file containing these fragments, was donated to The Imperial University and Regional Library of Strasbourg (Kaiserliche Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek zu Straßburg),5 while the incunabula remained in the Municipal Library, now called by the name of André Mal- raux. Since that time, no one else has mentioned any link between the two collections. Presentation of the Codex Although several collections of haftarot have been identified among the fragments in the Colmar corpus, one of them is represented by no less 3 Strasbourg’s library, which had been hosted by the city’s Dominican convent, was destroyed by German bombs in August 1870; see Rodolphe Reuss, “Lettre de Mr Rodolphe Reuss sur les bibliothèques de Strasbourg (extrait de la Revue critique d’histoire et de litté- rature).” Bibliothèque de l’école des chartes (1871): 151–178. After its destruction, the German Empire founded a new library that was intended for the University of Strasburg and for the Region of Elsass-Lothringen, named the Kaiserliche Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek zu Straßburg. In response to an appeal by Karl August Barack, numerous libraries contrib- uted to the reconstitution of the Strasbourg collection. The Kaiser Wilhelm I gave 4,000 volumes from his private collection. The municipal council, being unwilling to relinquish “a monopoly on the intellectual development and moral culture to the German university,” decided to found a new municipal library. Thanks to a plea from Major Emile Küss, books were offered by numerous European centers (Paris, London, Firenze, Utrecht and Colmar) and by individual German collectors. It is interesting to note that, until now, each institu- tion recounts its history without mention of its sister institution. 4 His son, the historian Rodolphe Reuss (1841–1924), was appointed Chief Librarian in 1873, a post that he held until 1896. 5 The collection from Edouard Reuss, which was donated in 1891, contained 14,500 volumes and 9,500 booklets, with biblical texts and their exegesis as its primary focus. See Gérard Littler, “La Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg—Constitution de la collection dans la période allemande (1871–1918).” Bulletin des Bibliothèques de France, 47,4 (2002): 36–46, p. 39. For a more detailed history of the library, see Henri Dubled, Histoire de la Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg (Strasbourg: Société aca- démique du Bas-Rhin, 1963)..