Heimann (Hayyim) Michael (April 12, 1792 – June 10, 1846) was a

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

bibliographer Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

born at

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. He showed great acuteness of mind in early childhood, had a phenomenal memory, and was an indefatigable student. He studied Talmudics and received private instruction in all the branches of a regular school education. He was a born

bibliophile Bibliophilia or bibliophilism is the love of books. A bibliophile or bookworm is an individual who loves and frequently reads and/or collects books. Profile The classic bibliophile is one who loves to read, admire and collect books, often ama ...

, and began to collect valuable works when still a boy of twelve. With his progress in

Hebrew literature Hebrew literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern writings in the Hebrew language. It is one of the primary forms of Jewish literature, though there have been cases of literature written in Hebrew by non-Jews. Hebrew literature was pr ...

his love for books increased also, the result of which was his magnificent library of 862 manuscripts and 5,471 printed works, covering all branches of Hebrew literature. There were few books in his collection which he had not read, and he undertook the preparation of a full catalog of it. As far as he accomplished this task, it was the foundation of the ''Ozerot Hayyim, Katalog der Michael'schen Bibliothek'', Hamburg, 1848. Michael took an interest not only in

Jewish literature Jewish literature includes works written by Jews on Jewish themes, literary works written in Jewish languages on various themes, and literary works in any language written by Jewish writers. Ancient Jewish literature includes Biblical literature ...

, but in all the intellectual movements of the day, as is shown by the large number of contemporary books and leaflets found in his library. He never wrote directly for publication, but many scholars applied to him for information, and this he never withheld. His correspondence with Leopold Dukes,

Franz Delitzsch Franz Delitzsch (23 February 1813, in Leipzig – 4 March 1890, in Leipzig) was a German Lutheran theologian and Hebraist. Delitzsch wrote many commentaries on books of the Bible, Jewish antiquities, Biblical psychology, as well as a history o ...

, Wolf Heidenheim, J.L. Rapoport, Luzzatto, Gesenius, Lebrecht, Akiba Eiger, and

Leopold Zunz Leopold Zunz ( he, יום טוב צונץ—''Yom Tov Tzuntz'', yi, ליפמן צונץ—''Lipmann Zunz''; 10 August 1794 – 17 March 1886) was the founder of academic Judaic Studies (''Wissenschaft des Judentums''), the critical investigation ...

is of great literary interest. Michael's only independent work was ''Or ha-Ḥayyim'' (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1891), a comprehensive bibliographical and literary-historical dictionary of

rabbinical literature Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Jewish history. However, the term often refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writ ...

, edited by his son, with preface by A. Berliner.

References

* ;''Jewish Encyclopedia'' bibliography *

, ''Zur Geschichte und Literatur'' p. 244, Berlin, 2010. *''Oẓerot Ḥayyim'', Preface, Hamburg, 1848. *'' Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums'' 1846, p. 224. {{DEFAULTSORT:Michael, Heimann 1792 births 1846 deaths Bibliographers of Hebrew literature Bibliophiles Jews from Hamburg