Exploring traces of Jewish Olomouc

Older than the Royal City of Olomouc

Olomouc is proud to be a city with one of the oldest documented Jewish histories in Moravia. The first mention of a Jewish settlement in the place, which can be transcribed into Latin as "Almijz" or "Olmijz", dates back to around 1140. At that time, the site was visited by Isaac ben Dorbolo (sometimes also Dorbelo or Durabel), a Jewish scholar, disciple of Rabbi Tam, who travelled with trading caravans and recorded interesting traditions of Jewish communities he visited.

His notes on Olomouc are preserved as entries in a book of customs and prayers compiled by a disciple of the renowned Rashi, Simcha ben Samuel of Vitra. The original manuscript of the work, known as the Machzor of Vitra, was destroyed over the ages. However, thirteen different copies on parchment, made from the twelfth to the fourteenth century, have survived.

You've probably never seen what a medieval Hebrew manuscript on parchment looks like, in which notes and commentaries are added to the original text interpreting the divine law, and the owner of the precious manuscript often attributes his own insights and comments, which become part of the text when it is copied again, and then receive another layer of notes and comments from subsequent generations. Here, by way of illustration, are a few passages from a copy of the Machzor Vitra containing Dorbol's annotations:

MS British Library, Add. MS 27200 and Add. MS 27201.


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