Moïse Schwab (Paris, 18 September 1839 – 8 February 1918) was a
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
librarian and author.
Life
He was educated at the Jewish school and the
Talmud Torah
Talmud Torah ( he, תלמוד תורה, lit. 'Study of the Torah') schools were created in the Jewish world, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, as a form of religious school for boys of modest backgrounds, where they were given an elementary edu ...
at Strasburg. From 1857 to 1866 he was secretary to
Salomon Munk; then for a year he was official interpreter at the
Paris court of appeals
The Court of Appeal of Paris (french: Cour d'appel de Paris) is the largest appeals court in France in terms of the number of cases brought before it. Its jurisdiction covers the departments of Paris, Essonne, Yonne, Seine-et-Marne, Seine-Saint-D ...
; and from 1868 was librarian at the
Bibliothèque Nationale
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...
. In 1880 he was sent by the minister of public instruction to Bavaria and Württemberg to make investigations with regard to early Hebrew printing-presses.
Works
Schwab was a prolific contributor to the Jewish press; and he is the author of the following works, all of which were published in Paris:
*1866. Histoire des Israélites (2d ed. 1896).
*1866. Ethnographie de la Tunisie (crowned by the Société d'Ethnographie).
*1871-1889. Le Talmud de Jérusalem, Traduit pour la Première Fois en Français (11 vols.).
*1876. Bibliographie de la Perse (awarded Brunet prize by the Institut de France).
*1878. ''Littérature Rabbinique.
Elie del Medigo et
Pico de la Mirandole'.
*1879. Des Points-Voyelles dans les Langues Sémitiques.
*1879. Elie de Pesaro. Voyage Ethnographique de Venise à Chypre.
*1881. Al-Ḥarisi et Ses Pérégrinations en Orient.
*1883. Les Incunables Hébraïques et les Premières Impressions Orientales du XVIe Siècle.
*1883. Bibliotheca Aristotelica (crowned by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres).
*1888. Monuments Littéraires de l'Espagne.
*1889. Maqré Dardeqé, Dictionnaire Hébreu-Italien du XVe Siècle.
*1890. Deuxième Edition du Traité des Berakhoth, Traduit en Français.
*1896-99. Vocabulaire de l'Angélologie.
*1899-1902. Répertoire des Articles d'Histoire et de Littérature Juive (3 vols.).
*1900. Salomon Munk, Sa Vie et Ses Œuvres.
*1904. Rapport sur les Inscriptions Hébraïques en France.
His most important work is ''Le Talmud de Jérusalem'', which was commenced in 1867 or 1868, before the appearance of
Zecharias Frankel
Zecharias Frankel, also known as Zacharias Frankel (30 September 1801 – 13 February 1875) was a Bohemian-German rabbi and a historian who studied the historical development of Judaism. He was born in Prague and died in Breslau. He was the fo ...
's ''Introduction'' or of the special dictionaries of the Talmud. The first part appeared in 1871 and was well received, although the critics did not spare Schwab. He then sought the cooperation of the leading
Talmudist
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the center ...
s; but he was unsuccessful and had to complete the work alone.
In addition to his work in Talmudic studies, he also produced editions of a number of Jewish Aramaic Magic bowls, though these were described as 'incredibly poor' by one scholar.
[Charles Isbell, 1975; Corpus of the Aramaic incantation bowls (Dissertation Series 17, Scholars Press), Missoula, Montana, p. 10]
*1882. “Un vase judéo-chaldéen de la Bibliothèque Nationale”, REJ (Revue des études juives) 4, pp. 165–172.
*1886. “Une coupe d'incantation”, Revue d'Assyriologie 1, pp. 117–119.
*1890. “Les coupes magiques et l'hydromancie dans l'antiquité orientale”, Proceedings of the Society for Biblical Archaeology 12, pp. 292–342.
*1891. “Coupes à inscriptions magiques”, Proceedings of the Society for Biblical Archaeology 13, pp. 583–595.
*1892. “Deux vases judéo-babyloniens”, Revue d'Assyriologie 2, pp. 136–142.
*1906. “Une amulette judéo-araméenne”, Journal Asiatique, 2e série, 7, pp.5-17.
*1910a. “A note on a Hebrew amulet”, PSBA 32:(155ff.).
*1910b. “Une amulette arabe”, JA 10e série, vol. 16, pp. 341–345.
*1916/7. “Amulets and bowls with magic inscriptions”, Jewish Quarterly Review 7, pp. 619–628.
References
*
1839 births
1918 deaths
French librarians
Alsatian Jews
19th-century French Jews
Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
French male writers
{{Judaism-bio-stub