JUDAH HA-HASID BEN SAMUEL OF REGENSBURG SEFER HASIDIM (BOOK OF THE PIETISTS), MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [ITALY, 15TH CENTURY]

207 leaves in quires of 16 (7 x 5 in.; 175 x 130 mm). Ruled in pencil, single-column text, 28–36 lines, written in brown ink in Ashkenazic semi-cursive script, rubricated chapter numbers and initial words, catchwords embedded in text, modern foliation in pencil; flaking of ink on some leaves with some fading of text, very minor cockling, light dampstaining on fols. 144–207, marginal tear on  fol. 76 not affecting text, a few other leaves expertly repaired. Modern brown morocco ruled in blind, spine lettered and ruled gilt, edges gilt.



 

Ivan.G. Marcus, Piety and Society (Leiden, 1981); Idem, "The Recensions and Structure of Sefer Hasidim" in Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, 45 (1978), pp.131–153; Haym Soloveitchik, "Three Themes in the Sefer Hasidim" in AJS Review, 1 (1976), pp. 311–357; R. Po-Chia Hsia, Trent 1475: Stories of a Ritual Murder Trial (New Haven, 1992)

The social and ideological movement known as Hasidei Ashkenaz (German pietists) developed in the spiritual atmosphere of the Jewish communities in German towns of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.  The first centers of the movement were Regensburg in southern Germany and the communities of Speyer, Worms, and Mainz; from there, its influence spread over most of Germany and, to a certain extent, to France as well.  After the decimation of a number of Jewish communities in the Rhineland during the first crusade, the principle of Kiddush ha-Shem (martyrdom) became an important issue confronting the pietists. Another significant factor in the development of the Hasidei Ashkenaz was the rising importance, outside of Jewish society, of the Christian pietist movements. The Jewish-German pietists both reacted to and were influenced by these trends in Christianity.  Finally, there was the movement's feeling of spiritual supremacy derived from its own strength and sense of duty to both God and the Jewish people.

Sefer Hasidim is the masterpiece of the Jewish pietists in Germany during the twelfth and early thirteenth century and reflects the customs and ethical norms of this group. There are two published recensions of Sefer Hasidim. The first, shorter edition was published in Bologna in 1538. The longer version found in a Parma manuscript containing a text that is twice as long was published by J. Wistinetzki in 1891 and reprinted with an introduction by Jacob Freimann in 1924.  In 1985, Ivan Marcus published a facsimile of the Parma manuscript together with an introduction in which he wrote that the Parma manuscript was the only copy of the longer recension extant and that the printed editions are full of many errors of transcription.   The Parma manuscript is divided into 1,983 paragraphs defectively numbered 1–1,999. The present manuscript includes approximately the same text as the Parma work but is divided into 825 paragraphs and includes an additional paragraph (826) at the end. On fol. 207r another hand added an account of the blood libel in Trent in 1475.

Sefer Hasidim is worthy of a new, critical edition, and this manuscript must necessarily be consulted in order to provide important textual variants in any future edition.