Cecil Roth Collection
Item
Country
GB
Name of institution (official language of the state)
Language of name of institution
eng
Contact information: postal address
Woodhouse Ln., Woodhouse, Leeds LS2 9JT
Contact information: phone number
0044 (0)113 343 5663
Contact information: web address
Contact information: email
library@leeds.ac.uk
Reference number
MS ROTH
Type of reference number
Archival reference number
Title (official language of the state)
Cecil Roth Collection
Language of title
eng
Creator / accumulator
Cecil Roth
Date note
13th century/20th century
Language(s)
ara
fra
heb
ita
lat
por
spa
Extent
c. 368 storage units
Type of material
Textual Material
Physical condition
Satisfactory
Scope and content
This collection is composed of books and manuscripts gathered by Cecil Roth throughout his life and later acquired by Leeds University chiefly in 1961. This remarkable collection includes some noteworthy manuscripts, such as an extract of a 14th-century manuscript Passover text in aljamiado; a Haggadah dating from 1451-1497 (MS ROTH/71-72); as well as the charters and regulations of the Jews of Leghorn, 1593-1783 (MS ROTH/228). In addition, the following documents are worth mentioning:
MS ROTH/507: Prophetical Lesson for the Sabbath preceding the Ninth of Ab, with Spanish paraphrase for liturgical use. Confession with Spanish translation.
MS ROTH/518: Novellae on the Pentateuch (Genesis 1:1–Exodus 23:25) presumably by Jacob Pardo.
MS ROTH/303: Twenty-five responsa, letters, and sermons, 18th–19th century, in Sephardic, Mughrabi, and Italian Hebrew hands (originals, copies, and drafts).
MS ROTH/304: Isaac Levi Valle’s commentary on dietary laws as codified by Joseph Karo.
MS ROTH/323: The Repetition of the law by Maimonides, book of judges: laws concerning the Sanhedrin, testimony, and disobedience.
MS ROTH/*281: Medieval Spanish document, dated January 1455.
MS ROTH/*282: Sentence passed by the Portuguese Inquisition against the converso Miguel Henriques da Fonseca who was burned at the stake at an Auto da Fé held in Lisbon, May 10, 1682, with reasons for the judgment.
MS ROTH/*286: Diploma of Leiden University, awarding a doctorate in medicine to the Portuguese converso Isaac Henriques Sequeira (1728–1816), dated August 31, 1758. The diploma is signed by five members of the Senate, including the Academic Rector, the Promoter, and the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine; a large red seal is attached and the verso is blank.
MS ROTH/201: Reflections responding to the two treatises presented by the Portuguese Inquisition to the Regent Pedro II against the appeal of the Conversos to the Holy See. Submitted to His Holiness Pope Clement X, 1674.
MS ROTH/212: Sixteen Italian documents from the Venetian authorities to the Ponentine community in Venice, 1589-1659 (originals and copies), with alphabetical thumb index in Spanish.
MS ROTH/217: Scroll commemorating the medieval deliverance of Jews in "Saragozza".
MS ROTH 221: Twenty-six 18th–19th-century historical documents, sermons, letters, hymns, et cetera, from Spalato (Split) and Ragusa (Dubrovnik), largely by members of the Pardo family.
MS ROTH/223: Formulary of Portuguese proclamations, et cetera, according to the usage of the Amsterdam Sephardic community, including numerous communal ordinances which had to be read annually in public.
MS ROTH/224: Sermon by Diogo da Annunciação, Archbishop of Cranganor, at the Lisbon Auto-de-Fé on September 6, 1705 (replied to by David Nieto), as prepared for the press.
MS ROTH/236: Receipt-book of the Portuguese community of Venice, 1649–1671 (bulk 1649–1665).
MS ROTH/237: Register of annuities sold by the Ponentine community in Venice to non-Jews in order to secure funds for communal purposes, 1696-1718.
MS ROTH/238: Original documents authorising sequestrations and releases of members of the Ponentine community in Venice, 1693–1722.
MS ROTH/239: Illuminated patent of appointment of Pedro de Soto Lopez, notary, as familiar of the Mexican Inquisition, Mexico City, 1648.
MS ROTH/401: Book of the Path of life: a philosophical treatise on the revelation of the Torah and the meaning of the commandments by Joseph ibn Jahia, copied partly by Gedaliah ibn Jahia at Codignola.
MS ROTH/121: Jacob Fano's elegy on the Marrano martyrs of Ancona in 1556, and Solomon Hazan's on the burning of the Talmud, 1553.
MS ROTH/1222: Elegies on the martyrs of Ancona, 1556, on the burning of the Talmud in Ancona, 1554, and the martyrdom of Joseph Saralvo, 1583, followed by elegies for the Ninth of Ab.
MS ROTH/507: Prophetical Lesson for the Sabbath preceding the Ninth of Ab, with Spanish paraphrase for liturgical use. Confession with Spanish translation.
MS ROTH/518: Novellae on the Pentateuch (Genesis 1:1–Exodus 23:25) presumably by Jacob Pardo.
MS ROTH/303: Twenty-five responsa, letters, and sermons, 18th–19th century, in Sephardic, Mughrabi, and Italian Hebrew hands (originals, copies, and drafts).
MS ROTH/304: Isaac Levi Valle’s commentary on dietary laws as codified by Joseph Karo.
MS ROTH/323: The Repetition of the law by Maimonides, book of judges: laws concerning the Sanhedrin, testimony, and disobedience.
MS ROTH/*281: Medieval Spanish document, dated January 1455.
MS ROTH/*282: Sentence passed by the Portuguese Inquisition against the converso Miguel Henriques da Fonseca who was burned at the stake at an Auto da Fé held in Lisbon, May 10, 1682, with reasons for the judgment.
MS ROTH/*286: Diploma of Leiden University, awarding a doctorate in medicine to the Portuguese converso Isaac Henriques Sequeira (1728–1816), dated August 31, 1758. The diploma is signed by five members of the Senate, including the Academic Rector, the Promoter, and the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine; a large red seal is attached and the verso is blank.
MS ROTH/201: Reflections responding to the two treatises presented by the Portuguese Inquisition to the Regent Pedro II against the appeal of the Conversos to the Holy See. Submitted to His Holiness Pope Clement X, 1674.
MS ROTH/212: Sixteen Italian documents from the Venetian authorities to the Ponentine community in Venice, 1589-1659 (originals and copies), with alphabetical thumb index in Spanish.
MS ROTH/217: Scroll commemorating the medieval deliverance of Jews in "Saragozza".
MS ROTH 221: Twenty-six 18th–19th-century historical documents, sermons, letters, hymns, et cetera, from Spalato (Split) and Ragusa (Dubrovnik), largely by members of the Pardo family.
MS ROTH/223: Formulary of Portuguese proclamations, et cetera, according to the usage of the Amsterdam Sephardic community, including numerous communal ordinances which had to be read annually in public.
MS ROTH/224: Sermon by Diogo da Annunciação, Archbishop of Cranganor, at the Lisbon Auto-de-Fé on September 6, 1705 (replied to by David Nieto), as prepared for the press.
MS ROTH/236: Receipt-book of the Portuguese community of Venice, 1649–1671 (bulk 1649–1665).
MS ROTH/237: Register of annuities sold by the Ponentine community in Venice to non-Jews in order to secure funds for communal purposes, 1696-1718.
MS ROTH/238: Original documents authorising sequestrations and releases of members of the Ponentine community in Venice, 1693–1722.
MS ROTH/239: Illuminated patent of appointment of Pedro de Soto Lopez, notary, as familiar of the Mexican Inquisition, Mexico City, 1648.
MS ROTH/401: Book of the Path of life: a philosophical treatise on the revelation of the Torah and the meaning of the commandments by Joseph ibn Jahia, copied partly by Gedaliah ibn Jahia at Codignola.
MS ROTH/121: Jacob Fano's elegy on the Marrano martyrs of Ancona in 1556, and Solomon Hazan's on the burning of the Talmud, 1553.
MS ROTH/1222: Elegies on the martyrs of Ancona, 1556, on the burning of the Talmud in Ancona, 1554, and the martyrdom of Joseph Saralvo, 1583, followed by elegies for the Ninth of Ab.
Archival history
Cecil Roth's collection of books and manuscripts was acquired by the Leeds University Library largely in 1961. Roth's art collection passed to the Beth Tzedec Synagogue Museum in Toronto, Canada. The scrolls of Esther and nearly all the marriage contracts are now to be found in Toronto, not Leeds, since Cecil Roth deemed them to be art objects, rather than literary works. Roth produced a catalogue of this collection (New York, 1950).
Administrative / Biographical history
Cecil Roth (1899-1970) was a British Jewish historian. He was editor-in-chief of Encyclopedia Judaica from 1965 until his death. He was born on March 5, 1899, in Dalston, London, the youngest of the four sons of Joseph and Etty Roth. Educated at the City of London School, he saw active service in France in 1918 and then read history at Merton College, Oxford, obtaining a first-class degree in modern history in 1922, and a DPhil in 1924; his thesis was published in 1925 as "The Last Florentine Republic". In 1928 he married Irene Rosalind Davis. They had no children. Roth soon turned to Jewish studies, his interest from childhood, when he had a traditional religious education and learned Hebrew from the Cairo Genizah scholar Jacob Mann. He supported himself by freelance writing until in 1939 he received a specially created readership in post-biblical Jewish studies at the University of Oxford, where he taught until his retirement in 1964. He then settled in Israel and divided his last years between New York, where he was visiting professor at Queens’ College in City University and Stern College, and Jerusalem. He died in Jerusalem on June 21, 1970. Roth’s literary output was immense, ranging from definitive histories of the Jews both globally and in several particular countries to bibliographical works, studies of painting, scholarly research, notably on the Dead Sea scrolls, and biographical works. But his crowning achievement was the editorship of the Encyclopaedia Judaica, which appeared in the year of his death.
Access points: locations
Access points: persons, families
Access points: subject terms
Access points: document types
System of arrangement
The fonds is divided into the following main series: MS ROTH Bible and Commentaries (1200-1599); MS ROTH Halacha, Midrash and Rabbinic Literature (1250-1812); MS ROTH History and Historical Material (1589-1966); MS ROTH Karaite and Samaritan Literature (1400-1899); MS ROTH Liturgy (1400-1899); MS ROTH Marriage Contracts etc. (1800); MS ROTH Miscellaneous (1500-1899); MS ROTH Philosophy, Polemics and Cabbala (1500-1799); MS ROTH Poetry and Belles Lettres (1500-1999).
Access, restrictions
Digital copies of some records are available online at:
Links to finding aids
Author of the description
Joana Rodrigues, 2022
Linked resources
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