Oxford, Cambridge work together to preserve Jewish texts
Oxford and Cambridge universities are putting aside an
historic rivalry in a bid to acquire thousands of rare texts that give insight
into Jewish life and culture from the medieval era until the 19th century.
This week the two institutions launched a fundraising
drive to acquire the "Lewis-Gibson Genizah Collection", which
consists of more than 1,700 fragments of historic Hebrew documents, of both
religious and secular importance, including a 12th century engagement deed, a
witness account of the Crusades and a fragment of the Rambam's Commentary on
the Mishnah written by the scholar himself.
The collection is part of the Cairo Genizah, a haul of
some 350,000 fragments of manuscripts unearthed in the Ben Ezra Synagogue in
Egypt in the late 19th century.
The Genizah has since been dispersed in libraries around
the world, from Philadelphia to Frankfurt, with a proportion of the fragments
brought to England by sisters Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson in
1896 and placed in the care of the United Reformed Church's Westminster
College.
In the aftermath of the discovery of the Cairo Genizah,
Oxford's Bodleian Libraries and Cambridge University Library competed to
acquire the rare documents, which are of immense scholarly value. Until now,
Cambridge has been home to the more impressive haul – around 200,000 fragments
– with Oxford holding some 25,000 folios.
But now the two old rivals are working together to save
Lewis-Gibson collection "from division and dispersal" and buy them
from Westminster College.
"Today we are taking a different stance, seeking to
build on our collections while recognising that there would be a greater
benefit to scholarship if we joined together," said Anne Jarvis, Cambridge
University librarian.
"We will share the work of curating, conserving,
digitising and presenting the manuscripts, making the best use of the strengths
of each institution," said Bodley's librarian Dr Sarah Thomas.
In 2010 the Polonsky Foundation pledged £500,000 to the
project but the universities are now hoping to secure the remainder of the £1.2
million funding needed to acquire the collection.
"The Cairo Genizah documents are like a searchlight,
illuminating dark corners of the history of the Mediterranean and shedding a
bright light on the social, economic and religious life of the Jews not just of
medieval Egypt but of lands far away," said Professor David Abulafia, an
expert on the texts. "There is nothing to compare with them."
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