J erold C. F rakes (ed.), Early Yiddish Texts 1100–1750: With Introduction and Commentary . J ean B aumgarten , Introduction to Old Yiddish Literature. Edited and translated by Jerold C. Frakes .

J erold C. F rakes (ed.), Early Yiddish Texts 1100–1750: With Introduction and Commentary . J ean B aumgarten , Introduction to Old Yiddish Literature. Edited and translated by Jerold C. Frakes .

Abstract

At the end of the introduction he lists the twenty or so different manuscripts which contain TgPss, and explains why out of these he has chosen as his preferred text the MS Héb 17 of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, and why he has elected to present as literal a translation as possible, providing it results in acceptable English. Before his commentary, he offers a two-page bibliography; here there is an interesting omission in the unpublished paper by W.F. Smelik, written in 2003 (‘Extant Manuscripts of the Targum to Psalms’), available online on the University College London website; the omission may have been because it was written too late for the publication of Stec’s work, but it is an important eclectic catalogue, and pays tribute to Stec’s (at the time) forthcoming work as the first to produce a commentary with critical apparatus. The subsequent commentary has a clear format. Each psalm begins with a translation which presents the differences from the MT in italics. The annotations to each of these italicized additions are either by way of letter, indicating a comment of a critical apparatus nature, or by number, indicating a comment of a more explanatory nature, which discusses