The Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana is the Jewish cultural and historical collection of the University of Amsterdam Special Collections. The foundation of the collection is the personal library of Leeser Rosenthal, whose heirs presented the collection as a gift to the city of Amsterdam in 1880. In 1877 the city library had become the University Library, so the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana was essentially given to the University. The Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana has since expanded to become the largest collection of its kind in Continental Europe, featuring manuscripts, early printed books, broadsides, ephemera, archives, prints, drawings, newspapers, magazines, journals, and reference books.
Historical background
Leeser Rosenthal (1794-1868) Leeser (Elieser) Rosenthal was born in Nasielsk, Poland on 13 April 1794 (13 Nisan 5554) to a family of rabbis and teachers. He moved to Germany at a young age, working as a teacher in Berlin and Paderborn before settling in Hanover as a financially independent Klausrabbiner at the Michael David'sche Stiftung. It was in Hanover that Rosenthal met and married Sophie (Zippora) Blumenthal, with whom he had three children, George, Nanny, and Mathilde. Rosenthal was fascinated by books on Jewish subjects, and developed an enthusiasm for collecting them. So much so that he spent his wife's dowry on purchasing more works to add to his growing collection. By the time of his death in 1868, Rosenthal's collection was considered the largest private library in this field in Germany, consisting of more than 5,200 volumes that included 32 manuscripts, 12 Hebrew incunabula, and a selection of rare Hebraica and Judaica on the subjects of religion, literature, and history.
Amsterdam
Leeser Rosenthal's son George (1828-1909) was a banker in Amsterdam when he inherited his father's library. George Rosenthal housed the library in his home on Amsterdam's Herengracht and commissioned the Dutch-Jewish bibliographer Meijer Roest (1821-1889) to compile a catalogue of the collection. The catalogue, entitled Catalog der Hebraica und Judaica aus der L.Rosenthal'schen Bibliothek was published in two volumes in 1875 with Leeser Rosenthal's own catalogue, Yodea Sefer as an appendix. Leeser Rosenthal's children wanted the library to remain undivided and serve as a public resource in memory of their learned father. To this end, they offered the collection to Chancellor Bismarck to be housed in the Kaiserliche und Königliche Bibliothek in Berlin, but he declined the offer. Offers to other European and American libraries also came to nothing. In 1880, the library of the city and university of Amsterdam moved to the former archery ranges on Singel canal, where there was space for the library to expand. Following this, Rosenthal's heirs decided to present their father's library to the city of Amsterdam. It was accepted 'with warmest thanks for a princely gift' and Meijer Roest was appointed curator the year after. Since the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana became part of the University of Amsterdam's library, the collection has been continually expanded in keeping with its assumed role as a modern, functional library covering all fields of Jewish study. Roest was succeeded as curator by Jeremias M. Hillesum (1863-1943), who made significant additions to the library. He, in turn, was followed by Louis Hirschel (1895-1944), who in 1940 completed a subject catalogue for the library.