"Shabbethei Bass and the construction (and deconstruction) of a Jewish library." Jewish Culture and History (2021). (original) (raw)

This essay examines two works produced in 1680 by the Jewish author and bibliographer, Shabbethai Meshorer Bass: his famous Hebrew bibliography, Sifte yeshenim, and his enigmatic Yiddish travel guide, Masekhet derekh erets. In both works, Bass relied heavily on previous sources, either in Latin or in German, which remained, for the most part, unacknowledged. The article offers a comparative reading of the two works, focusing particularly on the understudied Masekhet derekh erets, to exemplify the porous and deeply collaborative nature of early modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature. *The Version of Record of this manuscript has been published and is freely available in Jewish Culture and History, March 4, 2021. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/1462169X.2021.1886718