Judaica Librarianship Volume 9 Number 1–2 17-28 12-31-1995 Climbing Benjacob's Ladder: An Evaluation of Vinograd's Thesaurus of the Hebrew Book Roger S. Kohn Library of Congress, Washington, DC, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://ajlpublishing.org/jl Part of the Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Information Literacy Commons, Jewish Studies Commons, and the Reading and Language Commons Recommended Citation Kohn, Roger S.. 1995. "Climbing Benjacob's Ladder: An Evaluation of Vinograd's Thesaurus of the Hebrew Book." Judaica Librarianship 9: 17-28. doi:10.14263/2330-2976.1178. , Association of Jewish Libraries, 30th Annual Convention, Chicago '.! I APPROBATIONS Climbing -Benjacob's Ladder: An Evaluation of Vinograd's Thesaurus of the Hebrew Book* Rogers.Kohn Stanford University Libraries Stanford, CA [Vinograd, Yeshayahu. Otsar ha-sefer ha '/vri: reshimat ha-sefarim she­ :,~yn ,.!>t,n ,~lN •ln,yw, ,,,n:m nidpesu be-ot '/vrit me­ 11,~y nuo W.!rTlWc,,.non 1ltl'W1 , reshit ha-def us ha- '/vri bi-shenat 229 (1469) 'ad· ""!:nmvr.i ~Yn Ol.!rTn 11,wNitl shenat 623 (186~. :c,~wl,, .(1863) l"!:>111nlW ;y C1469) Yerushalayim: ha-Makhon ,mwmtltl m.nill'~~~ 1l~tln le-bibliyografyah .n"lW1l·i"lW1l memuhshevet, 754-5, c1993-1995]. Vinograd, Yeshayahu. Abstract: The Thesaurus of the Hebrew The foremost French bibliographer of the Thesaurus of the Hebrew Book, by Yeshayahu Vinograd, is re­ previous generation, Louise-Noelle Malcles viewed in the context of both general (1899-1977), defines the term bibliography Book: Listing of Books bibliography and of general Hebraica thus: printed in Hebrew Letters bibliography. Significant contributions since the Beginning of in Hebrew bibliography preceding the Bibliography seeks out, transcribes, and Hebrew Printing circa Thesaurus are discussed. After review­ classifies printed docun,ents in order to 1469 through 1863. ing a previous work of Y. Vinograd, the construct tools for intellectual work which author evaluates the Thesaurus from a are called bibliographic lists, or bibliogra­ Part I. Indexes: Books and bibliographer's perspective, using the phies. (Malcles, 1961, p. 8) criteria established by Louise-Noelle Authors, Bible, Prayers and Tal­ Malcles. The article concludes with a She continues: mud, Subjects and Printers, biographical note on Yeshayahu Vino­ Chronology and Languages, Hon­ grad. Just as the demographer inventories orees and Institutes. Jerusalem: populations, and studies their move­ The Institute for Computerized ments without knowing each citizen of Bibliography, 1995. xviii, 507, Bibliography and Bibliographic Lists the country in question, the bibliograph­ [64] p. er, without having read all books, follows At a meeting of .the Bibliographical Society their creation, their purport, and distribu­ Part 11.Places of Print, sorted by of London held before World War I, Walter tion. (Malcles, 1961, p. 8) Hebrew names of places where W. Greg (1875-1959), then the leading bibliographer in Great Britain, remarked Malcles also established that the term "bib­ printed including author, subject, that "bibliography has grown from being an liography" in its modern sense was not place and year printed, name of art into ... a science" (Greg, 1913, p. 39). used before the early 17th century. What printer, number of pages and for­ For bibliographers and historians of the we now call bibliography was then called mat, with annotations and biblio­ Hebrew book, the publication of Yesha­ [in Latin] bibliotheca, catalogus, repertori­ graphical references. Jerusalem: yahu Vinograd's Thesaurus of the Hebrew um, inventarium, or index (Malcles, 1985, The Institute for Computerized Book is an occasion to celebrate, because p.12). Bibliography, 1993. xvi, 702 p. the work is grounded in two concurrent tra­ ditions of "bibliographic science": General The English term bibliography is not as Bibliography and General Hebraica Bibli­ precise as its French equivalent ("reper­ *The original manuscript, submitted March ography. toire bibliographique"), because French 28, 1995, reviewed only Part 2 of the The­ library science has two distinct terms­ saurus. A shorter version of this paper was Hebrew bibliography stems from the more "bibliologie" or "science du livre" (science presented at the Association of Jewish general field of systematic bibliography, an of the book) and "bibliographie" (Malcles, Libraries Convention held in Chicago, June academic discipline rooted in the humanis­ 1985, p. 15)-while English has only one 19, 1995. A revised manuscript reflecting tic tradition of the Renaissance. term for both concepts. the publication of Part 1 of the Thesaurus was submitted July 10, 1995. Judaica Librarianship Vol. 9 No. 1-2 Spring 1995-Winter 1995 17 Association of Jewish Libraries, 30th Annual Convention, Chicago Refining Malcles' classification, British bibli­ Following Gesner, a multiplicity of scholars After World War I, bibliographic expansion ographers insisted on the importance of produced many specialized bibliographies. continued in a new form: teams of the word systematic in the term systematic researchers combined their efforts in long­ bibliography, contrasting it with other biblio­ b) A shorter period, the bibliophilic period, term projects undertaken under interna­ graphic genres. As Greg defined it, was a very active period of transition, in tional scientific aegis. Automation after which bibliography was practiced by a wide 1960 radically changed the field, but these Descriptive, or to use a wider term, sys­ number of social groups (book dealers, pri­ developments are outside the scope of this tematic bibliography, [is] the classifica­ vate owners, etc.). These bibliographers article. tion of individual books according to developed a full-fledged theory of bibliog­ some guiding principles. (Greg, 1913, p. raphy, structuring the field and defining the The preceding overview allows us to state 45) term "bibliography." "General bibliography" clearly: the Otsar belongs, as do all the (defined as the subfield interested in the other Hebraica bibliographic lists dis­ Systematic bibliography has been distin­ generation of bibliographic lists in many cussed below, in what Malcles defined as guished from and bibli­ analytical historical languages and on many topics) emerged the pre-technical period, because the bibli­ ography. Analytical bibliography studies as the leading branch, both in its interna­ ographic lists are the work of one individ­ the structure of the book and describes it; tional and national components. ual, not of a team. There is no derogatory historical bibliography emphasizes the implication in defining Hebraica bibliogra­ study of the various methods of book pro­ c) The third period is split by World War I. phers as artisans, as they are in the good duction. Both are often combined in critical The first part ( 1810-1914), called pre-tech­ company of Brunet and Graesse. bibliography, in-depth study of the book as - nical ("artisanale"), is followed by the tech­ a material object or physical entity. nical and professional period (1920-1960; 1960- ). With great scientific progress and In this classification scheme, Vinograd's the emergence of modern nations in West­ General Hebraica Bibliographies: Otsar is considered a systematic bibliogra­ ern Europe, many bibliographic lists were A Brief Survey phy. published. Periodization in the History of To fully understand the innovative charac­ Bibliography ter of Vinograd's work, we need to place it Hebrew bibliography in a more narrowly defined context, that of A comprehensive history of bibliography as its predecessor Hebraica bibliographies, a scientific discipline has yet to be written, stems from the more gen­ and to review the major steps in the devel­ but in her magistral work, Manuel de bibli­ opment of Hebrew bibliography prior to ographie, Louise-Noelle Malcles (1985) era I field of systematic Vinograd. It took the combined efforts of established three major periods for the Jewish and Christian scholars for over development of bibliography: three centuries to establish Hebrew bibli­ bibliography, an academic ography as a genre of its own. Only during a) The humanistic period (16th-end 18th the nineteenth and twentieth centuries c.); discipline rooted in the were major works of Hebrew bibliography b) The bibliophilic period (end 18th written only by Jewish scholars. c.-beginning 19th c.); and humanistic tradition of the c) The technical and professional period The best introduction in English to this field (since 181O}. Renaissance. is the first chapter of Shimeon Brisman's A history and guide to Judaic bibliography Although most former Hebrew bibliogra­ (Brisman, 1977, pp. 2-36). The author phers were not, and some contemporary The art of national bibliography, both retro­ states in his incipit to that chapter, entitled ones are probably still not, aware of this spective and current, flourished in modern "General Hebraica Bibliography," that periodization, the accomplishments of non­ Germany, Great Britain, and France before Hebraica bibliographers had an indirect 1914. In contrast, what Malcles catego­ influence on Hebraica bibliography. To fully rizes as "General International Bibliogra­ Bibliographies not devoted to any specif­ evaluate Vinograd's Otsar, we need to phy"-i.e., the production of bibliographic ic form or topic in literature are designat­ place Hebraica bibliography in this broader lists in many languages on many topics­ ed as "general." In the Jewish field, all