Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/61

29 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

29

to register the names of signers of haskamot in his uncompleted catalogue of 389 manuscripts and pubZuckermann followed Pinner with his lications. catalogue of the Seminary Library in Breslau (Breslau, 1870), giving the abodes as well as the names

Meyer

Roest, in his catalogue of the Rosenthal Library, sets down not only the names and abodes, but also the Hebrew day, month, and year of issue of the approbations, thus contributing of signers.

a real service to Jewish literature. It is a pity that Samuel Wiener, in his description of the Friedland Library, felt compelled to limit himself and did not follow Roest's example entirely. An index to approbations, which would be of great service to Jewish scholars, can be successfully accomplished only by the extension in this direction of Wiener's catalogue. Specimen of a Haskamah (Permit of the Rabbis). Whereas, there have appeared before us the wise, the perfect one, etc., Isaac Gershon, and his worthy associate, Menahem Jacob Ashkenazi, and have testified that they have gone to much labor and trouble, have expended great sums, and have spared no expense, all in order that they may bring to light, in as beau-

and excellent an edition as possible, the secrets of a work of great worth, through which the public good will be advanced, viz., the book called " Sefer Bedek ha-Bayit," by that sage, that wonder of his generation, our master and teacher, Joseph Oaro of blessed memory And whereas, the work is to be completed, as a service to God, with the utmost beauty and perfection And whereas, they fear lest they sow and another reap, doing all their work in vain, and lest they make all their expenditures only " to leave to others their wealth " ; Therefore they have sought and have been granted aid from the city through the uttering of a ban, and the publishing of a rabbinic notice to the effect that no injury or harm shall come to them through any man. tiful

And whereas, permission has likewise been granted them by the nobles, the Cattaveri (may their majesties be exalted !), that their desire and wish should be fulfilled Now, therefore, we decree, under threat of excommunication, ban, and anathema through all the curses written in the Bible, that no Israelite, man or woman, great or small, be he who he may, shall purpose to publish this work, or to aid any one else In publishing it, in this or any other city within ten years, except it be by the will and permission of the associates above mentioned

And

separate quarter assigned to them. About the end of the thirteenth century the poet Isaac ben Abra-

ham Gorki visited Apt and wrote afterward a poem in honor of its Jewish community, which had given him a very hearty welcome. In the responsa of Solomon ben Adret several Jews of Apt are mentioned. In the Bodleian manuscript No. 2550 there is found a correspondence with a certain R. Samuel ben Mordecai (Neubauer, in "Rev. Et. Juives," xii. 87). In the British Museum manuscript, add. 22,089, there occurs a letter signed by Massif Jacob of Lunel, Durant del Portal, Nathan Vidal Bedersi, Mei'r ben Abba Mari, and "us, some of the other members of the community of Apt." A Don Massif Jacob is signatory to another responsum, dated 1340. Apt being a monosyllabic word, the common noun TJJ ("town") was sometimes prefixed to it, thus forming the compound word L3NTJ? (" Aptville "). Bibliography:

let it

Jacob.

Upon any one who may transgress against this our decreemay there come against him "serpents for whose bite there is no charm," and may he be infected " with the bitter venom of asps " may God not grant peace to him, etc. But he that obeys -may he dwell in safety and peace like the green olive-tree and rest at night under the shadow of the Al;

mighty ; may all that he attempts prosper may the early rain shower with blessings his people and the sheep of his pasture. " And ye who have clung to the Lord your God are all of you

G.

APTROD, DAVID.

See Abterode.

APULIA A district of

southern Italy, the limusually regarded as the region bounded by the Frentani on the north, Samnium on the west, Calabria and Lucania on the south, and the Adriatic on the east. Apulia is now one of the poorest provinces of Italy, but in the Middle Ages, by reason of its several excellent seaports, it was of considerable commercial importance. This probably accounts for its early attractiveness to Jewish immigrants; for in northern Italy commerce had been monopolized by a number of native It is impossible to determine the Christian families. exact date of the settlement of Jews in Apulia, though it must have been early. In Pozzuoli, in the neighboring province of Naples, which was the chief Italian seaport for Oriental commerce, there were Jewish inhabitants about the year 4 B.C., directly after the death of Herod (Josephus, "Ant." "B. J." ii. 7, § 1). For such an early xvii. 12, § 1 arrival of Jews in other parts of southern Italy all On the death of Theopositive proof is lacking. dosius I. and the division of the Roman empire, in the year 395, Apulia was allotted to Honorius, the emperor of the West. In his days the Jewish population in Apulia and its adjunct Calabria must already have been considerable, for he abolished in those provinces the curial freedom

its

of which have varied.

It is

,

Early of the Jews and interdicted the exSettlement portation of the patriarchal taxes and, besides this, he complained in one of of Jews,

his edicts (of the year 398) that in nu-



Apulia and Calabria the communal could not be regularly filled, because of the refusal of the Jewish population to accept them an attitude toward government appointments characteristic of the medieval Jews. The catacombs of Venosa, in Apulia, the birthplace of Horace, have yielded to recent excavators a great deal of epigraphic material, consisting of inscriptions in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, dating,

merous

cities of

offices

alive this day."

Thus sayeth Zion Sarphati, and thus sayeth Leb Sarvil, Baruch ben Samuel. On the 17th day of Nisan, 1600, 1 published this ban, by command of the associates mentioned above, in every synagogue in the community of Venice. Eliezer Levi, Beadle of the Community. a.

Gross, Gallia Judaica, p. 37.



be likewise understood that by this decree no Israelite is allowed to receive any copy of the book mentioned from any man, Jew or Christian, be he who he may, through any manner of deceit, trickery, or deception, but only from the above-mentioned Menahem Jacob Ashkenazi. For thus it is desired by the scholar, etc., mentioned above, that all copies of the above-mentioned book shall be published and sold by Mena-

hem

Approbation Apulia

J.

M. H.

APT (ON): A small town, not far from Avignon, In the in the department of Vaucluse, France. Middle Ages it was inhabited by Jews, who had a

according to the conclusions of Mommsen, from the Seven Hebrew epitaphs of the ninth sixth century. century, likewise, have been unearthed at Venosa, and their contents indicate the existence of a flour-