Book Notes: The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo - Vol. XI, General Index, Pierro Sraffa (ed.), M. H. Dobb (collaborator.)

<plain_text><page sequence="1">DAVID RICARDO The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo. Ed. by Piero Sraffa with the collaboration of M. H. Dobb. Vol. XI, General Index. Published for the Royal Economic Society by the Cambridge University Press (November 1973). Pp. xxiv+114. ?3.50. To complete a vast undertaking of ten volumes, spread over 1951 to 1955, on the</page><page sequence="2">256 Book Notes work and correspondence of David Ricardo, the famous economist who lived from 1772 to 1823, Volume XI, General Index, has at last appeared. By a happy coincidence, a paper on David Ricardo delivered to the Jewish Historical Society not long ago by Professor A. Heertje, of the University of Amsterdam, appeared in the last volume of Transactions. The Ricardo General Index volume acknowledges the help of Professor Heertje in suggesting, after years of cogitation, a plan for the index, which is, of course, an indispensable instrument in the understanding and research of the ten pre? ceding volumes. It has an additional value, because the opportunity has been taken in Volume XI to include some additional letters and notes, to parts of which the editor's attention was drawn by, among others, Professor Heertje and Sir Leon Radzinowicz, and Professor F. W. Fetter and Professor J. Dorfman, of the U.S.A. An Error Corrected The very first entry in the index reminds us of Professor Heertje's contribution to our knowledge of the Ricardo family, for it reads 'Abaz, Hannah (Ricardo's grandmother) . . .'. It was from the Amsterdam records that the Professor discovered, as noted in the volume as well as in his JHSE paper, that Volume X of the Works was incorrect in stating that Ricardo's grandfather, Joseph Israel Ricardo (1699-1762), was married twice, to Hannah Israel and later to Hannah Abaz. The two Hannahs were one, and the error occurred because there were two ceremonies, civil and religious, the one calling her Abaz and the other Israel; apparently bad handwriting also gave the impression of different dates on the two entries. As may be expected, the index guides one to a good deal of information about the whole Ricardo family as well as to Jewish families such as the Goldsmids, Basevis, Da Costas, Delvalles, and Lindos, and to several indi? viduals, including Nathan Meyer Rothschild and Daniel Eliason. Works drawn on, one perceives, besides naturally a tremendous corpus of general economic intelligence, include, for historical material, Transactions and Miscellanies of the Jewish Historical Society and books by, inter alia, Lionel D. Barnett, Moses Gaster, Elie HaleVy, A. M. Hyamson, and James Picciotto. John M. Shaftesley</page></plain_text>