Research Project: The Jewish Heritage in Sicily
This research project aims at finding and cataloguing all the Hebrew books, manuscripts, and fragments, that are kept in Sicilian libraries and archives. It involves public and ecclesiastic libraries although, during the 19th century, the oldest book collections belonging to religious orders were expropriated and donated to municipal or regional libraries, where they are still kept.
This research has already brought to some results: as it could be expected, the books and fragments that once belonged to Sicilian Jews are almost exclusively manuscripts, while Hebrew printed books arrived to public libraries from the collections of Christian Hebraists, mainly belonging to religious orders.
Only a small part of these volumes has been catalogued, partly because of the lacking of cataloguers who can read Hebrew, and partly because ancient collection are rarely entirely catalogued.
We have often rumors about the existence of early Hebrew books in a library. These books, accidentally found during relocations, or by some scholar researching a library collection, are often excluded from the modern catalogues (especially from the OPACs) and are difficult to find. This is why it is important to cast light over their existence and their peculiar story.
Methodology
The first aim of this project concerns libraries and archives in Sicily that may have Hebrew sources. An investigation is being conducted in the main libraries of each town where Jewish presence was documented. The presence of religious orders, convents and monasteries, is another impact factor for this research, as their rich libraries very often include at least a Hebrew grammar, a Hebrew-Latin dictionary and a multilingual Bible.
In order to find out how many documents and proofs of the Jewish presence and of Hebrew studies in Sicily are still unknown a visit to all the municipal libraries of the towns where Jews once lived is necessary.
The reasearch visits include:
- Consultation of printed and handwritten catalogues of early books and manuscripts,
- Consultation of the inventories of the archives (if extant),
- Interview the director and/or keeper of the library,
- Consultation of the relevant material kept in the institution,
- Description and digitization.
All the footprints that will be found will be recorded, and a list of the names will be attached to the final publication. The footprints found on printed books will be included in the database managed by the Columbia University Library: Footprints: Jewish Books Through Time and Place.
Some libraries own Hebrew books and manuscripts that have actually been catalogued online: they will be included in this new catalogue as well, adding all the details that may be missing in the extant bibliographic descriptions.
Publication of the results
The results of the whole research will be published on this website that has been especially created to divulgate the results of this research as well as the digital resources collected.
A printed catalogue illustrating the background and the results of the research will be published at the end of the investigation.
