In reprinting this rare work, the publishers have performed an outstanding service to students of Sephardic and Iberian history, literature and linguistics. A mere listing of the book’s contents, in fact, is sufficient to reveal its importance for several fields of research: “Aperçu sur la littérature des Juifs Espagnols” [introduction to the following]; a biobibliography of public Jews, crypto-Jews and New Christians who wrote in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Latin and/or Ladino as well as of Christians writing pro- or anti-Jewish works (both printed and manuscript items) or Jews and non-Jews whose works have been translated into Ladino [Bibl. Esp.-Port.-Jud.]; a list of Ladino periodicals; about five hundred Ladino proverbs (to be used with caution) [appendix to the preceding]; author and title indexes.
The value of this reprint is enhanced by the inclusion of Kayserling’s “Notes sur la littérature des Juifs Hispano-Portugais” and “Une histoire de la littérature juive de Daniel Lévi de Barrios,” a supplement to the Biblioteca by J. S. da Silva Rosa and Weisz Miksa’s 525-item bibliography of Kayserling’s publications. These supplementary articles are likewise not now easily accessible.
All of these works are reproduced without editorial emendation or comment, though Prof. Yerushalmi’s insightful Prolegomenon and his annotated list of Ibero- Jewish bibliographies will place them in proper perspective. There is little of direct interest to Latin-Americanists except for the fact that writers and printers who at one time or another lived in Curaçao, Barbados, Brazil, etc., are listed in the Biblioteca.
