the kind, published by Jacob Koref at Breslau, in the year 1862, under the title of 'Haman, der grosse Judenfresser.'
Some of the more ancient Hebrew-German versions have been preserved to the present day. Besides the version published here, two more manuscripts are known to exist, one at the Leipzig Stadtbibliothek and one at the Munich Library, besides a fragment in possession of Dr. M. Gaster. Of the extremely rare prints we possess two that deserve to be especially mentioned: The one is entitled תרגום של חמש מגילות, "The Targum or Aramaic version of the 'Five Megilloth.'"[1] The translation or rather adaptation—for we are told on the titlepage that besides the Targum many midrashic sources have been used—is composed 'nach dem nigun(=ton) vun dem Schemuelbuch'[2] and 'gemacht un' getiutscht durch Rabbi Koppelmann[3] vun Brisk Dekou (Breisgau). The work, which, for convenience sake, we shall mark in the following as B, was completed at Metz in the year 1584. The other is also based on the Targum Sheni to Esther and is written in stanzas of fourteen lines each (aabccbdedeffgg) under the title of תרגום שני על מגילת אסתר, "Second Targum to Megillath Esther "(Prag, 17th century)=P).
These two poems, B and P, although going back to one and the same source, must be considered as independent, unconnected productions and the works of two separate authors. For not only do they differ in their contents, but are composed in two distinct dialects, as we hope to show on another occasion, and in different metrical forms. As to their relation to our version (=O), we shall have first to compare its contents with B. Thus the contents of vv. 356 to 610 with the corresponding
- ↑ The "Five Megilloth" or "Rolls" are the books of Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. Originally only the Esther Roll was called "Megillah," but subsequently when the other four books were received into the liturgy the word was applied to them too. The word "Megillah" by itself without naming the book always means the book Esther. Cf. 964a, 1516, a, 1517.
- ↑ See above, p. 2.
- ↑ It is the same Jacob Koppelmann who translated the 107 'Fox Fables' of Berechia ben Natronai ha-Nakdon (Grimm, Tierfabeln bei den Meistersängern, pp. 3 ff., 9f.) into Hebrew-German riming couplets (Breisgau 1588).
