Beschreibung:

Extensive correspondence on the subject of the publication of the Diwan (collection of poems) of Shmuel HaNagid based on the manuscript in the collection held by David Solomon Sassoon. Letters (some handwritten) and copies of letters from David Solomon Sassoon, Hayim Nahman Bialik, Israel Davidson, Cyrus Adler, David Yellin and others. London, New York, Denmark, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other cities, 1924-1932 (two letters from 1946). Hebrew, English and German. In the early 20th century, the collector David Solomon Sassoon acquired the most complete manuscript of the Diwan of Shmuel HaNagid. The manuscript was one of the prominent items in the Sassoon collection, arousing much interest among scholars of medieval Hebrew poetry. The present collection contains letters to and from David Solomon Sassoon, concerning the manuscript and the ways it may be published. The correspondence centers mostly on the contract signed by Sassoon with Hayim Nahman Bialik (as the representative of "Dvir" publishing house) in 1926; this contract granted Bialik the right to copy the contents of the manuscript, and "Dvir" the right to print it. As transpires from the letters in this collection, the contract was eventually cancelled after Sassoon discovered that Bialik had transferred parts of the manuscript copies to the scholar Israel Davidson, who used them in his "Thesaurus of Medieval Hebrew Poetry". The manuscript was finally published in 1934 by the Oxford University Press. The collection includes: * Correspondence on the publication of Diwan Shmuel HaNagid by the Hevrat Mekize Nirdamim press; including letters by David Simonsen, Haim Brody, Cyrus Adler and David Yellin (letter in his handwriting and signature, in square script; and a printed letter, signed in his hand). * Letters from Hayim Nahman Bialik concerning the conditions of printing the Diwan at "Dvir", the work of copying the Diwan, and more. Including: a letter in his handwriting and with his signature, in which he sets out the conditions of the book's publication; three letters in his handwriting (written and signed in square script) concerning the copying of the Diwan. * Correspondence between David Solomon Sassoon, Hayim Nahman Bialik, Israel Davidson and others, in light of the publication of the second volume of the Thesaurus of Mediaeval Hebrew Poetry by Davidson. This volume contained some opening lines from the poems of Shmuel HaNagid, copied from the manuscript in the Sassoon collection, which, Sassoon claimed, constituted a blatant violation of the contract between him and Dvir Publishing House. The correspondence sheds light on the affair, which included legal proceedings and eventually led to the cancellation of the contract. The letters indicate that at the time, Bialik also transferred copies of the manuscript to David Yellin, who used them in his work "New Poems by Shmuel HaNagid". * Additional letters. Total of about 90 items - letters, copies of letters and documents. Most of the letters are printed (and many are signed by hand). The letters include four in the handwriting and with the signature of Hayim Nahman Bialik and two printed letters with his signature. Size and condition vary. Filing holes in all the letters. Enclosed are a few additional documents and newspaper clippings related to Hayim Nahman Bialik.