Papers of Cecil Roth

Scope and Content

Correspondence, c.1927-69, with letters between third parties, including A.M.Hyamson to Lord Cohen of Walmer, 1952, Wickham Steed to Neville Laski, 1934, and Hilary Jenkinson to Richard Barnett, 1955. Notes and working papers, including notes on Jews of and at Oxford, notes on statesmen of 16th century Turkey and the social history of the Jews in Europe, copies or transcripts of documents, photographs and other papers; genealogies of the Mendes Dacosta, Jurnet and Salaman families, the Liebman, Woolf and Solomon of Penzance and the Jacobs families. Lectures by Roth on Jewish history from the early medieval period to the 19th century; reviews and articles, newspaper cuttings and offprints. A copy of Roth's A bird's-eye view of Jewish history (Cincinatti, 1935) with manuscript and type- written notes by the author to amend it as the basis of a correspondence course in Jewish history, c.1947.

Administrative / Biographical History

Cecil Roth was Reader in Post-Biblical Jewish Studies at the University of Oxford, Visiting Lecturer in History at Jews' College, London, and President of the Jewish Historical Society of England. He published many works on Jewish and general history, including The last Florentine republic (1952), A short history of the Jewish people (1936) and History of the Jews in England (1941). He was editor-in-chief of the Encyclopaedia Judaica (see Irene Roth Cecil Roth: historian without tears (New York, 1982).

Access Information

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Geographical Names