Moritz Steinschneider

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Moritz Steinschneider

Moritz Steinschneider (born March 30, 1816 in Proßnitz , Moravia , † January 24, 1907 in Berlin ) was a Jewish-Moravian, Austrian-Prussian bibliographer and orientalist . He is considered the founder of the scientific Hebrew bibliography and "was the most universal Jewish scholar of his time".

Early training

Moritz Steinschneider

He acquired his early training from his father Jacob Steinschneider (1782–1856). He was a recognized expert in Talmudic studies and well trained in secular sciences. Many progressive Hebraists met in his house , including Moritz's brother-in-law, the doctor and writer Gideon Brecher . At the age of six, Moritz was sent to public school, which was unusual for Jewish children at the time. At the age of 13 he became a student of Rabbi Nahum Trebitsch, whom he followed to Nikolsburg in 1832 . Then he continued his Talmudic studies in Prague and stayed there until 1836. At the same time he attended lectures at the Charles University in Prague . Abraham Benisch, his compatriot, was also studying in Prague at this time. This introduced a kind of Zionist movement among his friends, in which Steinschneider initially took part. In 1842, however, he should break with this orientation.

In 1836 Steinschneider went to Vienna to continue his studies and, on the advice of his friend Leopold Dukes , devoted himself to oriental and new Hebrew literature, especially bibliography , which would become his main interest.

As a Jew, Steinschneider could not join the Academy for Oriental Languages and could not even prepare excerpts from Hebrew books and manuscripts in the Austrian National Library . Nevertheless, he continued his studies of the Arabic, Syrian and Hebrew languages ​​and literatures with Josef Kaerle at the Catholic theological faculty of the University of Vienna. He aspired to a career as a rabbi. In Vienna, as before in Prague, he earned his living by teaching, including Italian.

University career

For political reasons Steinschneider was forced to leave Vienna. He wanted to go to Berlin , but since he could not get the necessary passport, he stayed in Leipzig . At the university there he continued his studies with Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer . At this time he began translating the Koran into Hebrew and worked with Franz Delitzsch on the edition of Aaron ben Elijahs Etz Chayyim (Leipzig 1841). However, the Austrian censorship did not allow publication under his co-editorship. In Leipzig he contributed several articles on Jewish and Arabic literature for Heinrich August Pierer's Universale Enzyklopädie .

After receiving the necessary passport, he went to Berlin in 1839 and heard Franz Bopp's lectures on comparative philology and the history of oriental literature. There he also made the acquaintance of Leopold Zunz and Abraham Geiger . In 1842 he returned to Prague. In 1845 he followed Michael Sachs to Berlin.

Currents of Orthodox Judaism made Steinschneider give up his intention to become a rabbi. At that time he was employed by the Frankfurt branch of the National-Zeitung and a correspondent for the Prager Zeitung . In 1844, together with David Cassel , he drafted the plan for the Real Encyclopedia of Judaism . A corresponding prospectus was printed in the literary sheet of the Orient , but Steinschneider's project was never carried out.

On March 17, 1848, after many difficulties, Steinschneider finally became a Prussian citizen. In the same year he was entrusted with the cataloging of the Hebrew books in the Bodleian Library in Oxford ( Catalogus Librorum Hebræorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana , Berlin 1852-60). This work took him for 13 years, including four summers in Oxford.

In 1850 he completed his habilitation at the Leipzig University . In 1859 he was entrusted with teaching positions at the Veitel-Heine Ephraim'schen Lehranstalt ( Klaus ) in Berlin. His lectures were attended by both Jewish and Christian students. From 1860 to 1869 he served as a representative of the Jewish community in the administration and protested in this connection against prejudices against Jews. From 1869 to 1890 he was director of the Jewish girls' school, and in 1869 assistant in the Berlin royal library. From 1859 to 1882 he published the journal Hebrew Bibliography . In 1872 and 1876, he turned down appointments to the College for the Science of Judaism in Berlin and the Budapest Rabbinical Seminary . In his view, universities, not Jewish theological seminaries, were the right institutions for pursuing Jewish science.

Grave in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee

Work areas

Steinschneider concentrated on areas that were far removed from actual theology, including mathematics, philology, natural history and medicine, in order to research the relevant Jewish contributions to cultural history . After Leopold Zunz had laid the foundations of the science of Judaism , Steinschneider completed it by working out important special aspects of the same. He was the first lecturer to give a systematic overview of Jewish literature up to the end of the 18th century and to publish catalogs of Hebrew books and manuscripts in European public libraries. The Bodleian Library catalog laid the foundations for its reputation as the most important Jewish bibliographer of all. His catalogs for the libraries of Leiden , Munich , Hamburg and Berlin , as well as the 21-volume Hebrew Bibliography, are a gold mine of information on Jewish history and literature.

One of his most important works concerns The Hebrew Translations of the Middle Ages and the Jews as Interpreters: A Contribution to the Literary History of the Middle Ages; mostly based on handwritten sources (Berlin 1893, planned as early as 1849). While he wrote articles on Jewish literature for the General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts (1844–1847) published by Johann Samuelesch and Johann Gottfried Gruber , he became aware of the extent to which sources were lacking to indicate the influence of foreign works on Jewish literature to study. He resolved to add a treatise on the history of translations to the monographs by Pierre Daniel Huet , Jourdain, Ferdinand Wüstenfeld and Johann Georg Wenrich , which presented the new Hebrew literature. In 1880 the Institut de France announced a prize for a complete bibliography of Hebrew translations of the Middle Ages . Steinschneider won it with two volumes in French, which appeared in 1884 and 1886 and were expanded to include a few supplements in the German translation.

Steinschneider wrote in German, Latin, French, Italian and Hebrew with equal ease. Although he did not actually write in the popular style, but was aimed at learned readers who “want to perfect their knowledge”, he and Adolf Horwitz edited a small reading book for school children, Imre Binah (1846), as well as primary school books for the Sassoon School Beni Israel to Bombay . In 1839 he wrote an overview of the sciences and arts which are not overlooked in hours of love for Moritz Gottlieb Saphirs Pester Tageblatt , and in 1846 Manna , a book with poems and translations of Hebrew poetry, which he dedicated to Augusta Auerbach, his fiancée, whom he married in 1848 .

Steinschneider's philosophical testament in the preface to the Arabic literature of the Jews is characteristic of his worldview . He, who laid the foundations for the study of Jewish literature and history, formulated an agnostic "creed" in it.

He was a co-author in the bohemian saga collection Sippurim .

Trivia

The name Steinschneider is originally a professional title for stonecutters and gemstone workers.

Fonts (selection)

  • as ed. with Franz Delitzsch : "Etz Chayyim". Ahron ben Elias from Nicomedia of the Karaean System of Philosophy of Religion, etc. Leipzig 1841.
  • The foreign language elements in New Hebrew. Prague 1845.
  • as ed. with Adolf Horwitz: Imre Binah: Spruchbuch for Jewish schools. Berlin 1847.
  • Manna. Adaptations of Hebrew poetry from the 11th to the 18th century. Berlin 1847. online .
  • Jewish literature. In: Publishers and Gruber: Encyc. Department 2/27, pp. 357–376, Leipzig 1850 (English translation by William Spottiswoode: Jewish Literature from the Eighth to the Eighteenth Century. London 1857; Hebrew translation by Henry Malter: Sifrut Yisrael. Vilnius 1899).
  • Catalogus Librorum Hebræorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana. Berlin 1852-1860.
  • The writings of Dr. Zunz. Berlin 1857.
  • Alphabetum Siracidis ... in Integrum Restitutum et Emendatum, etc. Berlin 1858.
  • Catalogus Codicum Hebræorum Bibliothecæ Academiæ Lugduno-Batavæ, with 10 lithographic tables on Karaite authors. Leiden 1858.
  • Bibliographic handbook on the theoretical and practical literature for Hebrew linguistics. Leipzig 1859 (with improvements and addenda ibid. 1896) online .
  • Reshit ha-limmud, a systematic Hebrew introduction to D. Sassoon's Bombay charity. Berlin 1860.
  • On pseudoepigraphic literature, especially the secret sciences of the Middle Ages. From Hebrew and Arabic sources. Berlin 1862.
  • Alfarabi . The Arab philosopher's life and writings, etc. St. Petersburg 1869 online .
  • The Hebrew manuscripts of the Royal Court and State Library in Munich. In: Session reports of the Philosophical-Historical Class of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Munich. Munich 1875. online .
  • Polemical and apologetic literature in Arabic between Muslims, Christians and Jews. Leipzig 1877 online .
  • Catalog of the Hebrew manuscripts in the Hamburg City Library . 1878 online .
  • The Arabic translations from the Greek. Berlin 1889–1896.
  • The Hebrew translations of the Middle Ages and the Jews as interpreters. A contribution to the literary history of the Middle Ages, mostly based on handwritten sources. Commission publisher of the Bibliographical Bureau, Berlin 1893 online .
  • Directory of the Hebrew manuscripts in the Royal Library of Berlin. 2 parts. Berlin 1897, 1901.
  • The Arab literature of the Jews. Frankfurt 1902 online .

In addition to a large number of contributions in various forms for other works (cf. Steinschneider Festschrift , pp. Xi – xiv), the following independent articles deserve special mention:

  • About the popular literature of the Jews. In: R. Gosches Archive for the History of Literature. 1871.
  • Constantinus Africanus and His Arab Sources. In: Virchow ’s archive. Volume 37.
  • Donnolo: Pharmacological Fragments from the 10th Century. ibid.
  • The toxological writings of the Arabs up to the end of the XII. Century. ibid. 52 (also published separately).
  • Poisons and Their Cure: A Treatise by Maimonides . ibid. 57.
  • Was there a Hebrew shorthand? In: Archives for shorthand. 1877 (reprint of the article Abbreviaturen , prepared for the unpublished Real-Encyclopadie des Judenthums).
  • with David Cassel : Jüdische Typographie und Jüdischer Buchhandel. In: Versch, Gruber (Ed.): Encyclopaedie. 2/27, pp. 21-94.
  • The metaphysics of Aristotle in a Jewish version. In: Zunz cheers. 1886.
  • Yehuda Mosconi. In: Berliners Magazin. 1876.
  • Constantin's Lib. De gradibus and ibn al-Gezzar's Adminiculum. In: German Archive for the History of Medicin u. medical geography. Volume 2, 1879 (reprint Hildesheim and New York 1971), pp. 1–22.
  • Islam and Judaism. ibid. 1880.
  • About education and the influence of travel on education (two lectures at the Young Merchants Association; reprinted in the Virchow-Wattenbach Collection of Common Scientific Lectures - 1894)
  • Supplementum Catalogi librorum hebraeorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana. In: Central Journal for Libraries. Volume 11, 1894, pp. 484-508 ( online ).
  • Lapidaries: An Attempt at Cultural History. In: Kohut Memorial Volume. 1896.
  • Jewish-German literature. In; Neuman's Serapeum. 1848-1849.
  • Jewish-German literature and Jewish-German. ibid. 1864, 1866, 1869.
  • Articles on: Arabia, Arabic, Arabic literature, Kaliphen, Koran, Muslim religion, Muslim sects in the 2nd edition (1839–43) of Pierer's Universal Lexicon.
  • Letteratura Italiana dei Giudei. In: Il Vessillo Israelitico. 1877-1880.
  • Letteratura Anti-giudaica in Lingua Italiana. ibid. 1881–1883.
  • On the history of translations from Indian into Arabic. In: Journal of the Oriental Society. 1870-1871.
  • Hebrew prints in Germany. In: Ludwig Geiger : Journal for the history of the Jews in Germany. 1886-1892.
  • Abraham Judaeus-Savasorda and Ibn Esra . In: Oskar Schlömilch : Journal for Mathematics and Physics. 1867.
  • Abraham ibn Ezra . ibid. 1880.

Literature (selection)

Web links

Commons : Moritz Steinschneider  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Günter Stemberger : History of Jewish Literature. An introduction . Beck, Munich 1977 ISBN 3-406-06698-4 p. 191
personal data
SURNAME Steinschneider, Moritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-German bibliographer and orientalist
DATE OF BIRTH March 30, 1816
PLACE OF BIRTH Prostějov
DATE OF DEATH January 24, 1907
Place of death Berlin