A fascinating talk about the Hebrew Manuscript Collections at the Bodleian Library.
The University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library holds one of the world’s preeminent sets of Hebrew and Judaica manuscripts. It was assembled in the course of four centuries, when individual collections came together thanks to the Bodleian’s librarians. Who were the original creators of the individual collections, why they devoted their energies to assembling them and why and how their libraries came to rest at the Bodleian is the object of this lecture. In the course of it, you will see some of the most beautiful and remarkable products of Jewish communities in the last millennium in a whirlwind tour of Jewish culture and life.
The lecture is based on the volume Jewish Treasures from Oxford Libraries, edited by Rebecca Abrams and César Merchán-Hamann, in which a group of specialists explore the Bodleian’s Judaica collections.
César Merchán-Hamann is Hebrew and Judaica Curator at the Bodleian Library and Director of the Leopold Muller Memorial Library, Oxford. He he holds a BSc in Mathematics, and took an MA and PhD in Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College London. He was Librarian at Leo Baeck College in London, where he taught Jewish History, before becoming Deputy Librarian at the Leopold Muller Memorial Library at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. He has published articles on German-Jewish history, Yiddish, medieval translations from the Arabic into Hebrew, and Hebrew book and manuscript collections.
JW3 is delighted to host this series showcasing the Fellows of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish studies.
