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584 Bass Bassevi

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Breslau, as early as July 15, 1694, to have the sale of Hebrew books interdicted, on the ground that

such works contained " blasphemous and irreligious words " and they had succeeded. As the magistrate saw, however, that the confiscated books contained no objectionable matter, they were restored In 1712 the Jesuit father Franz Kolb, to Bass. teacher of Hebrew at the University of Prague, succeeded in having Bass and his son Joseph arrested, and their books confiscated. The innocent little book of devotions, Nathan Hannover's " Sha'are Zion " (Gates of Zion), which Bass reprinted after it had already gone through several editions, was transformed in the hands of the learned father into a blasphemous work directed against Christianity and Christians. Bass would have fared ill had not the censor Pohl, who had been commissioned to examine the contents of the books, been both faithful and competent. In consequence of his decision, Bass was released after ten weeks' imprisonment, at first on bail, and then absolutely. The last years of his life were devoted to the second edition of his bibliographic manual, which he intended to issue in enlarged and revised form. He died without completing the work. Bass's works have the constant characteristic of answering practical needs. In 1669 he reprinted Moses Silrtels' Judsso-German glossary Literary on the Bible; adding a grammatical Activity, preface, a work intended to supply the lack of grammatical knowledge among teachers of the young, and to furnish the latter with the correct German rendering in translating the Bible. Bass was greatly interested in improving the instruction of the young, and recommended the German-Polish Jews to imitate the methods of instruction obtaining in the Portuguese community of Amsterdam (Introduction to "Sifte Yeshenim,"

p. 8, translated

by Gudemann,

in " Quellenschriften

zur Gesch. des Unterrichtswesens," pp. 112 et xeq.), His subcomdescribing in detail their curriculum. mentary on Rashi's commentary on the Pentateuch

and the

five Megillot

(Amsterdam,

1680,

A





rowed from the works of Buxtorf and Bartolocci (from the latter only in the first part). Bass's work is distinguished not only by its brevity and accuracy, but by an entirely original feature, in respect to which he had no predecessor, and almost no successor; narnely, a classification of the He entire Jewish literature, as far as he knew it. divides the whole into two chief groups, Biblical and post-Biblical, and each group again As Bibli- into ten subdivisions. Thus, dictionog-rapher. aries, grammars, and translations form a subdivision of the Biblical group; while Talmud commentaries and novella? are included in the Talmudic group. Although this classification is still very superficial and primitive, it in-

wide knowledge and astonishing In addition to the list and classification of the books, Bass gives an alphabetical index of authors, including one of the Tannaim, Amoraim, Saboraim, and Geonim. Bass's introduction to his work is most characterdicates its author's

range of reading.

of the spirit prevailing among German Jews at he cites ten " religious reasons " for the that time Not only was Bass's underusefulness of his work. taking new to the German Jews, but it also appeared strange to them and only the Portuguese Jews of Amsterdam, who had a leaning toward methods and Christian systems, knew how to appreciate him. scholars, however, were at once impressed by the istic





and reliability of the bibliography. Latin as well as German translations, some of which are still extant in manuscript, were undertaken by Christian Orientalists. The greatest proof of Bass's merit lies in the fact that Wolf's " Bibliotheca Hebnea " is based chiefly on the " Sifte scholarship, style, usefulness,

Yeshenim." Bibliography

Braun, Monatxschrift, xl. 477-480, 515-526, 560-574; idem, in Liebermann's Jahrlmch filr Israelitcn, 1883, pp. 105 et xeq.; Filrst, BUM. .Tudaica, Introduction to Part iii. 76-83 ; Oelsner, Shaihethai Basxista, Leipsic, 1858; Steinschneider and Cassel, in Ersch and Gruber, EncyhlopHdie, Wolf, Bihl. xxviii. 87 ; Steinschneider, Gat. Bodl. col. 2339



Hchrcea,

i.

1023,

ii.

957,

iii.

1000, iv. 769.

L. G.

and many

times reprinted) is also intended for elementary inIn this little book he has summed up with admirable brevity and clearness the best work of his fifteen predecessors, who had commented on Bashi; the book being even to-day a most useful and almost indispensable aid toward understanding most interesting and and appreciating Bashi. somewhat amusing little work is Bass's itinerary, entitled "Masseket Derek Erez," a treatise on the roads of the country (Amsterdam, 1680); the book, written in JudaBO-German, contains also tables of all the current coins, measures, and weights in European countries, and a list of routes, post connections, and distances. Bass's chief work, however, is his bibliographical manual "Sifte Yeshenim" (Lips of the Sleepers compare Cant. B. to vii. 10) (Amsterdam, 1680, frequently reprinted). This work contains a list of 2,200 Hebrew books, in the alphabetical order of the titles, conscientiously giving the author, place of printing, year, and size of each book, as well as a short summary of its contents. The majority of the books described he knew at the description of the others he borfirst hand struction.

584

BASSAI. See Bezai. BASSANI, HEZEKIAH MORDECAI

B.

SAMUEL:

Rabbi of Verona, Italy; lived at the end of the sixteenth century and at the beginning of the seventeenth. He was the author of " Miktab le-Hizkiyahu " (Letter of Hezekiah), on divorce, and "Ma'amar Mordekai" (Mordecai's Words), on the levirate marriage, both published under the title " Pene Yizhak " (Face of Isaac), Mantua, 1744. Bassani also wrote " Sefer Bikkurim " (Book of Visits), Verona. 1710, dealing with prayers to be recited on visiting the sick. It is partially based on Aaron Berechiah's "Ma'abar Yabbok " and on Isaiah Horwitz's theme,

"Luhot

ha-Berit."

Bibliography: Benjacob, Ozar ha-Sefarim,

p. 83; NepiGhirondi, Tolednt Gedole Yisrael, p. 112; Zedner, Cat.Hehr. Books Brit. 78. p.

Mm.

i,.

M. B.

g.

BASSANI, HUGO:

Italian poet

and composer;

born in Padua June 5, 1851. He studied in Milan and was one of the favorite scholars of Anthony Bazzini, director of the Milan Conservatory. Bassani's romances compositions for piano or orchestra are highly appreciated and have been published

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