SCHWAB, MOÏSE

SCHWAB, MOÏSE (1839–1918), French scholar. Schwab, born in Paris, attended the Talmud Torah of Strasbourg. He served as secretary to Solomon *Munk, the Orientalist, during 1857–66, later writing his biography: Salomon Munk, sa vie et ses oeuvres (1900). In 1869 Schwab began a 40-year career with the *Bibliothèque Nationale, first as an assistant and later as associate keeper. His scholarly interests were wide: he translated the Palestinian Talmud into French (Talmud de Jérusalem, 11 vols., 1871–90; repr. 1961), and he wrote Abravanel et son époque (1865); Histoire des Israélites (1866, 1895²); and Vocabulaire de l'Angélologie (1896–99). Schwab also published Les Incunables orientaux et les impressions orientales au commencement du xvi siécle (1883). He described the Hebrew manuscripts and incunabula in the library of the Alliance Israélite (1904) and in other French and Swiss libraries.

Schwab contributed many articles to the Revue des Etudes Juives, the Journal Asiatique, and the bulletins of the Bibliothèque Nationale. Of particular importance is his Répertoire, a bibliography of articles published on Jewish subjects in learned journals between 1665 and 1900 (1899, 1914–23). The Répertoire, arranged alphabetically according to authors, lists 112 items by Schwab himself. His great erudition was not always matched by equal exactitude, and his work must therefore be checked thoroughly.

bibliography:

D. Sidersky, Moïse Schwab, sa vie et ses œuvres (1919).

[Colette Sirat]