HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS FOR SALE: I thought I had already noted the following from the Forward, but a check in my search engine indicates not.

Manuscripts Worth Millions
ARTIFACTS
September 24, 2004

If you're struggling to find a gift for that person who has everything and you've got a few hundred thousand dollars to spend, then Sotheby's New York has the right auction for you.

On October 27 and 28, the Montefiore Endowment at Ramsgate, England, will auction off a wide array of rare Hebrew manuscripts that Marcia Malinowski, senior vice president of books and manuscripts at Sotheby's New York, touts as "the most significant collection to appear on the market in decades."

[...]

Culled from works across Europe and North Africa, the bulk of the offerings were acquired around 1900 by Moses Gaster, a Romanian scholar who served as principal for the college founded by Victorian gaslighting tycoon, banker and philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore.

Gaster acquired the manuscripts from Leopold Zunz, a founder of the Science of Judaism, and book collector Solomon Hayyim Halberstam. Most were donated to Jews' College in London, where they spent the last century.

Today, the Jerusalem Post notes the same sale:

Montefiore manuscripts

[...]

The collection is especially rich in biblical, legal and historical texts. In addition, the liturgical manuscripts, kabbalist works, philosophical and literary texts are unusually diverse. The collection is estimated to sell for $8m./$11m. and the proceeds will be used to fund scholarships and education.

The lots include Bibles, biblical commentaries, sermons, halachic works, talmudic commentaries, responsa literature and prayer books, as well as treatises on kabbala, philosophy, astronomy, and medicine; and volumes of poetry, drama and music.

The manuscripts originate from Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Greece, North Africa, Yemen, and other locations and reflect the traditions and cultures of each geographic area over the course of eight centuries.

[...]

I know nothing about the circumstances behind the sale and it may well be that financial straits are compelling the institution to sell them. But I'm surprised that nobody has remarked on what a pity it is that Gaster's precious manuscript collection is being broken up and scattered like this. It certainly won't make study of the manuscripts any easier.