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Country
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US
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Language of name of institution
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eng
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Contact information: postal address
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Sterling Memorial Library. 120 High Street, 06511 New Haven, CT
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Contact information: phone number
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001 (203) 432 1735
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Contact information: email
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mssa.assist@yale.edu
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Reference number
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MS 1890
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Type of reference number
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Archival reference number
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Title (official language of the state)
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Jews of Italy collection of manuscripts and documents
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Language of title
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eng
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Creator / accumulator
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Yale University Library. Judaica Collection
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Date(s)
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1568/1974
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Date note
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Bulk: 1750/1900
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Language(s)
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eng
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heb
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ita
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lat
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Extent
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2.19 linear metres (10 containers)
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Scope and content
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This collection is composed of a variety of documents from Jewish communities in Italy, mainly in the northern regions of Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, and Veneto. It comprises records of Jewish communal organisations, correspondence of rabbis and community leaders, legal decisions, liturgy, and official notices and rulings from various Italian authorities about the Jewish community. Most of the documents are entirely handwritten, but some are printed or written on printed forms or letterheads.
The collection includes some materials from the 16th to the 18th centuries that could contain interesting information regarding the Western Sephardic Diaspora in the Italian Peninsula. Some examples are the following:
Box 1: Documents concerning the Jews of Italy, 16th-19th century. They include records concerning the property of Jews in Ancona (16th century), many documents signed by leading rabbis of Italy (16th-19th century), as well as correspondence, legal rulings, liturgical documents, and records concerning communal welfare funds and institutions from Ancona, Livorno, Modena, Carpi, and other communities.
Box 2: Documents concerning the Jewish community of Modena, including its by-laws originally written in 1654 and updated in 1791 (folder 1), and correspondence concerning a variety of matters relating to the community in the 18th century.
Box 7, folder 2: Notebook with sermons, liturgical texts, and poems (18th century), including an Italian translation of a Solomon ibn Gabirol's liturgical poem.
Series Accession 2016-M-072, box 1: Poems and wedding riddles (17th-19th centuries).
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Archival history
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The materials have several provenances and were purchased from various vendors by the Judaica Collection of the Yale University Library. They were transferred to Manuscripts and Archives in 2008 and 2015.
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Administrative / Biographical history
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Yale has a long and rich tradition in the study of Jewish religion, history, and thought dating back to Yale's founding when the Hebrew language was a required course of study. An undergraduate major in Judaic Studies, and a graduate program training future academic leaders, was begun in the mid-1980s.
Following the receipt of two major gifts in 1915, the Yale Library established a separate Judaica collection, which is recognised as one of the major collections of Judaica in the USA. The focus of the approximately 300,000-volume collection, which includes manuscripts and rare books, is biblical, classical, medieval, and modern periods of Jewish literature and history, and supports the research needs of the faculty and students of the university's Judaic Studies Program and of the broader academic community.
Rare materials are housed in the Manuscripts and Archives Department of the Sterling Memorial Library and in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Among the rare and unusual Judaica at the Beinecke Library are some 200 manuscripts and 45 incunabula. Special features include the Alexander Kohut Memorial Collection of Judaica, Selah Merrill Collection of Josephus, the Goodhart Collection of Philo imprints, and the Sholem Asch Collection, a collection of illuminated Jewish marriage contracts, and a collection of Jewish illuminated votive plaques.
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(source: Judaica Collection. Yale University Library: Manuscripts & Archives)
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System of arrangement
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The arrangement of the materials reflects their purchase from various rare materials dealers. Manuscripts are usually accompanied by an inventory supplied by the dealer, typically in Hebrew.
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Access, restrictions
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The materials are open for research.
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Author of the description
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Carla Vieira, 2022
