Moritz Steinschneider

Moritz Steinschneider ( born March 30, 1816 in Proßnitz, Moravia, † January 24, 1907 in Berlin) was a Jewish- Moravian, Austro- Prussian bibliographer and Orientalist. He is regarded as the founder of scientific Hebrew bibliography, and " was the most universal Jewish scholars of his time ."

Early education

He acquired his early education from his father, Jacob Steinschneider ( 1782-1856 ). This was a recognized expert in Talmud studies as well as in the secular sciences trained well. In his house, many progressive set Hebraists, including Maurice's brother, the physician and writer Gideon Brecher met. At the age of six years, Moritz was sent to the public school, which was unusual at that time for Jewish children. At age 13, he became a disciple of Rabbi Nahum Trebitsch, whom he followed to Mikulov in 1832. Then he continued his Talmudic studies in Prague continued and remained there until 1836. Simultaneously he attended lectures at the university. Abraham also Benisch, a native, studied at this time in Prague. This resulted in a kind of Zionist movement one among his friends, to which also Steinschneider initially took part. In 1842, he, however, should break with this orientation.

1836 Steinschneider went to Vienna to continue his studies and devoted himself after advice of his friend Leopold Dukes of orientialischen and modern Hebrew literature, especially the bibliography, which should be his main interest.

As a Jew, Steinschneider was the k.k. Not enter the Academy of Oriental Languages ​​and did not even make extracts from the Hebrew books and manuscripts in the Austrian National Library. Nevertheless, he continued his studies of Arabic, Syriac and Hebrew languages ​​and literatures continued with Professor Josef Kärle at the Faculty of Vienna University Catholic Theological. He sought a career as a rabbi. In Vienna, as before in Prague, he earned his living by teaching, including in Italian.

University career

For political reasons, Steinschneider was forced to leave Vienna. He wanted to Berlin; but as he could not obtain the necessary passport, he remained in Leipzig. At the university there he sat with Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer continued his studies. At this time he began the translation of the Quran into Hebrew and worked with Franz Delitzsch on the issue of Aaron ben Elijah's Etz Chayyim (Leipzig 1841). However, the Austrian censors did not allow the publication under his co-editor. In Leipzig he contributed several articles on Jewish and Arab literature for Heinrich August Pierers Universal Encyclopedia.

After he got the necessary passport, he went to Berlin in 1839 and heard the lectures of Franz Bopp on comparative philology and the history of oriental literature. There he made the acquaintance of Leopold Zunz and Abraham Geiger. In 1842 he returned to Prague. In 1845 he followed Michael Sachs to Berlin.

Currents of orthodox Judaism were Steinschneider to abandon his intention to become a rabbi. At that time he was employed by the Frankfurt branch of National newspaper and a correspondent for the Prager Zeitung. In 1844 he designed along with David Cassel the plan of Real - Encyclopedia of Judaism. A corresponding prospectus was printed in the journal literature of the East, the project of lapidary but never executed.

On March 17, 1848 Steinschneider was after many difficulties finally Prussian citizen. In the same year he was with the cataloging of the Hebrew books in the Bodleian Library in Oxford ( Catalogus Librorum in Bibliotheca Hebraeorum Bodleian Library, Berlin 1852-60 ) entrusted. This work took him for 13 years to complete, including, he spent four summers in Oxford.

In 1850 he completed his habilitation at the University of Leipzig. In 1859 he was entrusted with teaching assignments at the Veitel Heine Ephraim'schen educational institution ( Klaus ) in Berlin. His lectures were attended by both Jewish and Christian of students. 1860 to 1869 he served as a deputy of the Jewish community in the management and protested in this regard against prejudice against Jews. 1869 to 1890 he was director of the Jewish Girls' School, 1869 Assistant in the Berlin Royal Library. 1859 to 1882 he edited the magazine Hebrew bibliography. 1872 and 1876, he refused appeals from the College of Jewish Studies in Berlin and the Rabbinical Seminary of Budapest. In his view, were universities, non-Jewish theological seminaries, the right facilities to pursue Jewish studies.

Work areas

Steinschneider focused on areas that were the actual theology far, including mathematics, philology, natural history and medicine to explore the relevant Jewish contributions to cultural history. After Zunz had laid the foundations of Jewish Studies, Steinschneider completed this through the development of important specific aspects thereof. He was the first teacher who gave a systematic overview of Jewish literature until the end of the 18th century and Katalogie Hebrew books and manuscripts published in the European public libraries. The catalog of the Bodleian Library, laying the foundations for its reputation as the most important Jewish bibliographer at all. His catalogs of the libraries of Leiden, Munich, Hamburg and Berlin, as well as the 21 -volume Hebrew bibliography are a gold mine of information about Jewish history and literature.

One of his most important works relates to the Hebrew translations of the Middle Ages and the Jews as interpreters: A contribution to the literary history of the Middle Ages; mostly by handwritten sources (Berlin 1893, planned in 1849 ). While he wrote for, edited by Johann Samuel Ersch and Johann Gottfried Gruber General Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences ( 1844-47 ) on Jewish literature, he became aware of the extent to which resources were lacking to the influence on other works on Jewish literature to study. He decided, the monographs of Huet, Jourdain, and Johann Georg Ferdinand Wüstefeld Wenrich on the history of translations a treatise on the side to make, which represented the modern Hebrew literature. 1880 wrote the Institut de France a prize from for a complete bibliography of Hebrew translations of the Middle Ages. Steinschneider won it with two volumes in French, which were published in 1884 and 1886 and extended in the German translation by a few supplements.

Steinschneider wrote with equal facility in German, Latin, French, Italian and Hebrew. Although he actually did not write in a popular style, but was directed at scholarly readers who " wish to perfect their knowledge ," he admitted with Adolf Horwitz a small reading book for school children out, Imre Binah (1846 ), as well as basic textbooks for the Sassoon School of Beni Israel to Bombay. In 1839 he wrote an overview of Sciences and Arts What in hours of love Do not Overlook Are for Moritz Gottlieb Saphir Pest Tageblatt, and 1846 Manna, a book of poems, transfers of Hebrew poetry, which he dedicated to Augusta Auerbach, his fiancée, whom he married in 1848.

Characteristic of his world view must apply in the preface to the Arabic Literature of the Jews stone cutter philosophical testament. He who laid the foundations for the study of Jewish literature and history, formulates an agnostic " creed ".

Works (selection)

The following list covers only the more important works of independent stone cutter according to chronological order.

  • Etz Chayyim, Aaron ben Elijah of Nicomedia, the Karaites 's system of philosophy of religion, etc., ed. with Franz Delitzsch. Leipzig 1841.
  • The foreign linguistic elements in modern Hebrew. Prague 1845.
  • Imre Binah: spellbook for Jewish schools, ed. with A. Horwitz. Berlin 1847.
  • Manna ( adaptations of Hebrew poetry from the 11th to 18th century). Berlin 1847. (Online)
  • Jewish literature, in Ersch and Gruber, Encyc, Department II/27, pp. 357-376, Leipzig 1850 ( engl. over by William Spottiswoode, Jewish Literature from the Eighth to the Eighteenth Century, London 1857, .. Hebrew trans. by Henry Malter, Sifrut Yisrael, Vilnius 1899).
  • Catalogus Librorum in Bibliotheca Hebraeorum Bodleian. Berlin 1852-60.
  • The writings of Dr. Zunz. Berlin 1857.
  • Alphabetum Siracidis ... in integrum Restitutum et Emendatum, etc. Berlin 1858.
  • Catalogus codicum Hebraeorum Bibliothecae Academiae Lugduno - Batavæ ( with 10 lithographic tables to Karaite authors). Leiden 1858.
  • Bibliographical Handbook on Theoretical and Applied Literature of Hebrew philology. Leipzig 1859 ( ibid. with improvements and addenda 1896). (online)
  • Reshit ha - Limmud, a systematic Hebrew introduction for D. Sassoon charity to Bombay. Berlin 1860.
  • To pseudepigraphical literature, specifically, the secret sciences of the Middle Ages. For Hebrew and Arabic sources. Berlin 1862.
  • Arab philosophers Alfarabi life and writings, etc. St. Petersburg in 1869. (Online)
  • The Hebrew manuscripts of the Royal Court and State Library in Munich, in Proceedings of the Philosophy and History classes at the Royal Academy of Sciences in Munich. Munich 1875. (Online)
  • Polemical and Apologetic literature in Arabic between Muslims, Christians and Jews. Leipzig 1877. (Online)
  • Catalog of Hebrew manuscripts in the public library to Hamburg. Hamburg 1878.
  • The Arabic translations from the Greek. Berlin 1889-96.
  • The Hebrew translations of the Middle Ages and the Jews as interpreters, etc. Berlin 1893.
  • Directory of the Hebrew manuscripts of the Royal Library in Berlin. Part 1 Berlin 1897, Part 2 ibid. 1901.
  • The Arabic Literature of the Jews. Frankfurt / Main 1902. (Online)

Besides a large number of contributions in various forms for other works (see Steinschneider Festschrift, pp. xi- xiv) the following independent essays deserve special mention:

  • About the folk literature of the Jews, in R. Gosches Archive for History of Literature, in 1871.
  • Constantinus Africanus and his Arab sources, in Virchow 's Archiv 37
  • Donnolo: Pharmacological fragments from the 10th century, ibid
  • The toxicological writings of the Arabs until the end of the XII. Century 52 (also published separately )
  • Poisons and your Healing: A Treatise of Maimonides, ibid 57
  • Was there a Hebrew shorthand? Archive for stenography in 1877 ( viaturen Cancel reprint of the article, prepared for not appearing real encyclopedia of Judaism )
  • Jewish typography and Jewish bookstores with D. Cassel in Ersch and Gruber, Encyc. , 2/27, pp. 21-94
  • The metaphysics of Aristotle in Jewish processing, in Zunz cheers font 1886
  • Jude Mosconi in Berliner's Magazine 1876
  • Islam and Judaism, ibid 1880
  • About Education and the impact of travel to education ( two lectures before the club Young merchants; emphasis in the Virchow- Wattenbach collection overhead Understandably Scientific Lectures 1894)
  • Stonework: A Culturgeschichtlicher attempt in Kohut Memorial Volume 1896
  • Jewish- German literature, in Neuman Serapeum 1848-49
  • Jewish- German literature and Jewish- German, ib. 1864, 1866, 1869
  • Articles: Arabia, Arabic, Arabic literature, the Caliphs, Koran, Muslim Religion, Muslim sects in the second edition ( 1839-43 ) of Pierers Universallexikon
  • Letteratura Italiana dei Giudei in Il Vessillo Israelitico 1877-80;
  • Letteratura anti - giudaica in Lingua Italiana ibid. 1881-83;
  • On the history of translations from the Indian 's in Arab Zs in the morgenl. Total 1870-71
  • Hebrew prints in Germany, Ludwig Geiger Journal of the History of the Jews in Germany 1886-92;
  • Abraham Judaeus - Savasorda and Ibn Ezra, in Oskar Schlömilchs Journal of Mathematics and Physics 1867;
  • Abraham ibn Ezra, ibid 1880.

Literature (selection )

  • Constantin von Wurzbach: Steinschneider, Moritz. In: Biographical Dictionary of the Empire of Austria. Volume 38, published by L. C. Zamarski, Vienna 1879, pp. 160-167.
  • Abraham Berliner: Catalogue of Steinschneider's works. In 1886.
  • Henry Samuel Morais: Eminent Israelites of the Nineteenth Century. A series of biographical sketches. Star Books, Philadelphia 1880 ( digitized Judaica Frankfurt).
  • Keneset Yisrael (Yearbook ) 1886
  • George Alexander Kohut: Bibliography of the Writings of Prof. M. Steinschneider. In: Festschrift for the 80th birthday stone cutter. Olms, Hildesheim, 1975, ISBN 3-487-05572-4 ( Nachdr d ed Leipzig 1896).
  • Idem: Moritz Steinschneider. In: The American Hebrew. The national weekly of Jewish affairs, vol 18 ( 1896).
  • Meyer Kayserling: Moritz Steinschneider. In: Judaism Allgemeine Zeitung on 27 March 1896.
  • Petra Figeac: Moritz Steinschneider. Founder of scientific bibliography Hebrew (Jewish miniatures, Vol 53), Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2007, ISBN 9,783,938,485,354th
  • Reimund Leicht, Gad Freudenthal (ed.): Studies on Steinschneider. Moritz Steinschneider and the Emergence of the Science of Judaism in Nineteenth - Century Germany ( Studies in Jewish History and Culture, Vol 33), Brill, Leiden 2011, inter alia, ISBN 9,789,004,183,247th

Others

The name stone cutter is probably originally a job title ( Steinmetz, gemstone Editor).

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