translation of the “Yosippon” by Michael Adam, published in Zurich in 1546, with numerous woodcuts,—one of the very few specimens of early Jewish book illustration and one of the small number of Jewish books printed at Zurich. The same translation, but revised by Menahem Mann Amelander, and with the addition of Amelander’s continuation of the “Yosippon,” is represented by the editions of 1743 and 1771. Zacuto’s famous genealogy “Sefer Yuhasin” is found in its second edition, issued in Cracow in 1580. Another valuable item is the first edition of the famous “Esperanca de Israel” by the great Manasseh ben Israel in the Hebrew rendering by Eliakim Gotz ben Jacob, published in Amsterdam in 1697.
The Kohut Collection contains Nathan de Jehiel’s great dictionary, by a critical edition of which the late Dr. Kohut earned universal fame as “The Editor of the complete ‘Aruk’.”
The Mishnah and Talmud and the following sections are relatively more complete and number more volumes than the rest. In the numerous editions of the “Mishnah” and both “Talmudim,” with and without commentaries, are the rare edition of “Pirque Aboth” with Maimonides’ and Don Isaac Abravanel’s commentaries, Venice, 1545. Among the works on Talmudic exegesis the most valuable in this group, and one of the finest items of the whole collection, is a complete set of the stupendous encyclopedia of Isaac Lampronti, “Pahad Yizhaq, 1750-1888.”
In the field of “Midrash and Tradition, Midrash Lequah Tob” of Tobiah ben Eliezer (11th century) is found in its first edition, Venice, 1546, the publishers having falsely titled it as “Pesiqta Zutarta.” The collection also contains outstanding items in the field of Hebrew Law, “responsa,” ethics, theology, and liturgy and ritual. Moscato’s “Nefuzoth Yehudah,” first edition, Venice, 1588, is one of the earliest Jewish collections of sermons. Mysticism and Cabala are represented by a small, but good, collection of early editions. There is also the great Moses ben Shem-Tob’s treatise on the human soul, “Sefar ha-Nefesh,” first edition, Basle, 1608; and Alonzo (Abraham) de Herrera’s (died 1631) treatise on the Cabala and the “Platonic science,” originally written in Spanish, translated into Hebrew by Isaac Aboab from the author’s manuscript, and published at Amsterdam, 1655. An outstanding item is the first complete edition of the “Sefer ha-Zohar,” in folio, published in Sulzbach in 1684, with a dedication to Christian August, Pfalzgraf of the Rhineland.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
