Michael Collection
Item
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Country
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GB
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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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Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BG
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Contact information: phone number
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0044 1865 277162 (reader services)
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0044 (0)1865 277150 (special collections)
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Contact information: email
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reader.services@bodleian.ox.ac.uk (reader services)
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specialcollections.bookings@bodleian.ox.ac.uk (special collections)
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Reference number
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MS. Michael
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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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Michael Collection
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Language of title
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eng
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Creator / accumulator
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Heimman Joseph Michael
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Date note
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13th century/19th century
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Language(s)
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heb
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Extent
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630 shelfmarks
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Physical condition
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Good
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Scope and content
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This collection is composed of Hebrew manuscripts from the collection of Heimman Joseph Michael (1727-1807). Of special interest regarding the Sephardic context are the following items:
MS. Mich. 155 (Neubauer 1984): this volume includes a 14th-century epistolographic formulary and a Hebrew poem by Yom Tov Ben Hannah (Abenhanya), scribe to the Jewish community of Montalbán, in the Kingdom of Aragon. See transcriptions in Ben-Shalom (2013). The manuscript also includes other writings and poems by authors from 14th- and 15th-century Aragon, among them, Yosé Ginilla (8 piyutim).
MS. Mich. 290 (Neubauer 1094): collection of Medieval piyutim, including ten poems in ladino following Hebrew poetry's models dated from the 15th century. Among the authors of these piyutim, there are Yosé Ginilla, Selomó Bonafed and Abraham Halevy. See transcriptions in Seroussi (2005).
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Archival history
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After the death of Heimman Joseph Michael, his manuscripts were purchased in 1848 by the Bodleian Library for about £1,000. The printed books were acquired by the British Museum.
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Administrative / Biographical history
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Heimman Joseph Michael (1792-1846) was a German merchant and collector of Hebrew literature. He was born in Hamburg and studied Talmudic. He started collecting books at the age of 12. The result of his bibliophilia was a remarkable library of 860 manuscripts and 5,471 printed works. His rich collection was the basis for the production of his encyclopedic work Or ha-Ḥayyim (posthumously published by his son in Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1891), containing the biographies and bibliographies of medieval Jewish scholars. Michael also composed a catalogue of his collection, which was the foundation for the Oẓerot Ḥayyim, Katalog der Michael'schen Bibliothek (Hamburg, 1848). The numerous contemporary books and leaflets in Michael's library also show that he had an interest in the intellectual movements of his time.
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(source: Jewish Encyclopedia)
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Existence and location of copies
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The manuscripts have been microfilmed by the Institute for Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts in Jerusalem.
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Hebrew Manuscripts
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Author of the description
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Joana Rodrigues, 2022
