Scribal Practices among European Scholars during the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century: The Cases of Auguste Steinschneider (Auerbach), Moritz Steinschneider, and Martin Schreiner

Abstract

This paper discusses patterns of manuscript sharing among European scholars during the second half of the nineteenth century, particularly in connection with Martin Schreiner (d. 1926), Ignaz Goldziher's former student, who, between 1894 and 1902, taught at the Lehranstalt für die Wissenschaft des Judenthums in Berlin. Both before and during his time in Berlin, Schreiner was given access to manuscripts that were in the possession of Moritz Steinschneider (d. 1907). The latter shared with him his copy of Moshe b. Ezra's (d. after 1135) K. al-Muḥāḍara wa-l-mudhākara (nowadays preserved as Ms. Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Ms. Or. Oct. 464). The copy, based on Ms. Oxford, Bodleian, Hunt. 599, had been produced by Steinschneider’s wife, Auguste, in 1851, through the painstaking process of tracing ("Durchzeichnung") the original manuscript. Moreover, at the end of 1897 Steinschneider lent Schreiner a copy of Samawʾal al-Maghribī's (d. 570/1175) Ifḥām al-Yahūd, a codex completed on 20 Jumādā II 1315[/16 November 1897], which had been copied for Steinschneider from an earlier witness held at the Khedival library in Cairo.