[24 historical documents pertaining to the Jews of Italy, 1700-1836 (originals and copies)].
Details
Type of record: Archive
Title: [24 historical documents pertaining to the Jews of Italy, 1700-1836 (originals and copies)].
Classmark: MS ROTH/230
Creator(s): Cassuto, Umberto Moshe Dana (1883-1951)(author); Mortara, Mordekhai ha-Levi(author); Ottolenghi, Adolfo (1880-1943)(author)
Date(s): [1700–1836]
Language: Italian; Hebrew
Size and medium: 24 items : paper, illustrations
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/115565
Description
English title derived from Roth, "Catalogue", in Alexander Marx: Jubilee Volume, vol. 1 (New York, 1950), no. 230.
Variant title:
Teʿudot shel Yehude Iṭalyah. תעודות של יהודי איטליה.
Summary:
Contains 24 bound-with items written by different hands on different paper (leaves, bifolia and quires); the majority of the documents reflect the time of the French revolution, the Napoleonic wars and the Cisalpine Republic.
All documents are in Italian; some have a few Hebrew words or passages.
The binding of the items was possibly commissioned by Roth (there are several items with similar binding in his collection).
Among the documents are:
Memorial to the Grand Duke of Tuscany about the Monte di Pieta (folios 1-10); letters to the author Girolamo Baruffaldi, with reference to Jewish baptisms (folios 15-16); prohibition of baptism of minors, Leghorn 1766 (folio 18); enregistrés (quartering) letter of the Armée d Italie (partly printed) (folio 21r); document of the Repubblica Cisalpina (partly printed) (folios 31–32); forms of action before the Jewish court at Mantua (partly printed) (folio 33-34); satirical poem on Napoleonic Sanhedrin, 1806 (folio 35).
Other documents relate to Jews in Sienna, Verona, Mantua, Finale, Ferrara et cetera.
State of text:
Ink seepage, stained and worn, but relatively well preserved.
Insertions:
2 historical documents:
1. Bifolium: Printed form (Vienna : Stamperia d’Alberti della Torre 1854) of the Hebrew letter from the rabbi of Mantua, Marco Mortara (מרדכי הלוי מרטארה), 11 or 15 Teveṭ 614, Mantua, regarding the abolition of the second day of the holy days; heading: דין הוא נוסח הכתב של החכם די מאנטובה; salutation: אל פני מלא בינה לראש פינה הרב הגדול כמהו׳׳רר [spatium] וחכימי דיהודאי דישרין; opening words: בראשית מאמר הוא לשלום רב.
With the answer by rabbis of Jerusalem including Yitsḥaḳ Kovo (יצחק קובו), Avraham Ashkenazi (אברהם אשכנזי), Yedidyah Refaʾel Ḥai Abualʿafiyah (ידידיה רפאל חי אבואלעפיה), and Mikhaʾel Yaʿaḳov Yiśraʾel (יכאל יעקב ישראל), Adar 614, Jerusalem; heading: דין הוא נוסח התשובה של הרבנים המובקים … דירושלם המעטירה; opening words אחרי עתרת החיים והשלום אנן בדידן.
2. Printed leaf: “Personal message from the Army commander on the occasion of the Jewish New Year … to all all Jewish soldiers”; noted in ink “1944”.
Research material:
2 leaves with typed excerpts from 18th- and 19th-century works on the history of Ferrara, like from “Girolomo Baruffaldi, “Dell’ Istoria di Ferrara”, Ferrara 1700, p. 395”.
Correspondence (4 letters):
1. Hebrew letter (1 leaf) from Umberto Cassuto, 6 Nisan 683 (10 March 1923), Florence, to Cecil Roth.
2. Hebrew letter (1 bifolium) from Umberto Cassuto, 15 Av 682 (27 July 1922), Florence, to Cecil Roth.
3. Hebrew letter (1 leaf) from Umberto Cassuto, 17 Tamuz 692? (8 July 1932?), Florence, to Cecil Roth.
4. Italian letter, Chief Rabbi Adolfo Ottolenghi, 6 July 1923, Venice, to Cecil Roth.
Bibliographical note:
Roth, “Catalogue”, in Alexander Marx: Jubilee Volume, vol. 1 (New York, 1950), no. 230.
National Library of Israel (NLI), Online Catalogue, system-no. 990001857750205171. The NLI’s description is based on the microfilm of MS Roth 230 made on behalf of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts of the NLI during the 1960s. The microfilm can now be downloaded in a digitised form from the NLI-webpage.
Davis, Handlist 164 (Leeds, 2005), no. 230.
Decoration
Drawn and printed seals. Floral decorations (folio 24).
Physical characteristics
Foliation: viii (i is paste-down) + 47 (24 items; bound and consecutively foliated; three leaves are skipped) + viii (viii paste-down); modern pencil foliation, generally upper left recto; many leaves are blank.
Script: Latin chancery script; Italian Hebrew script.
Ms. documents: width 235mm height 330mm
Binding
Quarter bound with pink marbled paper over boards; dark red goatskin leather spine gilt-lettered with "Jews in Italy –– Contemporary documents"; gilt-lettering "MS Roth 230" was added in the 1990s.
Scribal information
Multiple Latin chancery hands; some Hebrew script.
Former owners and annotations
Roth’s description of MS Roth 230, cut out from a copy of his printed catalogue, is attached to front end-paper.
Access and usage
Access
This material is not subject to restrictions under Data Protection or other relevant legislation that might limit access. However, other protections, such as donor conditions or conservation considerations, may still apply where advised.