CNS STORY: Libraries publish detailed catalogue of Vatican's Hebrew manuscripts

VATICAN-HEBREW Jan-30-2009 (500 words) xxxi

Libraries publish detailed catalogue of Vatican's Hebrew manuscripts

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Vatican-Israeli cooperation has resulted in improved access to a written -- and often illustrated -- history of Jewish faith and scholarship, Christian-Jewish cooperation and disputes, as well as Christian curiosity about Judaism.

After almost 10 years of intense work, the Vatican Library and National Library of Israel's Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts have published a detailed and descriptive catalogue of the more than 800 Hebrew manuscripts and books held in the Vatican Library.

The Vatican Library and the Israeli Embassy to the Holy See hosted a formal presentation of the catalogue Jan. 30 and offered the public a glimpse of four of the most important manuscripts.

Mordechay Lewy, the ambassador, said the manuscripts -- dating from the ninth century to the present day -- document "the history of the relationship of the Vatican and the Jewish community" as well as highlight the importance of the written word for "preserving and passing on knowledge from generation to generation, guaranteeing the continuity of the tradition and the survival of Jewish identity."

Benjamin Richler, the Israeli manuscript scholar who edited the volume, said the Vatican's collection of Hebrew writings reflects the broad spectrum of both Jewish and Catholic interests.

The collection includes about 100 Bibles and biblical commentaries; a similar number of works dealing with Jewish law, customs and liturgy; about 100 works of philosophy, including works by Jewish authors or translated into Hebrew; about 70 manuscripts dealing with astronomy, mathematics or medicine; 90 manuscripts dealing with kabbalah or Jewish mysticism; as well as works of literature and poetry.

Msgr. Cesare Pasini, prefect of the Vatican Library, said the project demonstrated that, despite periods of serious mistreatment of the Jews by Christians, books and manuscripts have and continue to bring people together as they are composed, copied, given or lent to others, purchased or inherited.

"Because different people are reading the same work -- even if in different places, at different times and with different intentions -- they are united around a common text," he said.

In addition, many of the Vatican's Hebrew manuscripts, particularly biblical texts handwritten in Italy, are themselves "a sign of collaboration, of dialogue," because most of them were commissioned by Italian Jews, but the calligraphy and illustrations were done by Italian Christians, Msgr. Pasini said.

"What marvelous fruits we have in our hands when people collaborate. They did it and we hope we did something similar" by working together to produce the catalogue, he said.

Giulio Busi, a professor of Hebrew language and literature, said that over the centuries the popes and cardinals had a variety of reasons for collecting Hebrew manuscripts: "First of all, the awareness of our common biblical roots; then a curiosity characteristic of humanism; and, certainly, an intent to engage in polemics or seek conversions."

Writing in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, Busi said the Vatican manuscripts "recount, literally in black and white, the story of an uninterrupted cultural exchange between the two faiths."

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