Collection ID: 0006 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Masoretic Bible

Other related names

• Harris, J. Rendel (James Rendel), 1852-1941, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/34585917)

Funders

• Council on Library and Information Resources

Call number

Rendel Harris 1
(Haverford, United States, Haverford College, Quaker & Special Collections, Rendel Harris)

Alternate identifiers

• https://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/repositories/5/archival_objects/24099
• SfarData: d185
• Institute-of-Microfilmed-Hebrew-Manuscripts: F 20067

Publisher

Quaker & Special Collections

Language

Hebrew

Origin

Place

Northern Spain

Summary

This manuscript is a Hebrew Bible with a colophon dated 5026 (1266), written in Spain, probably Tudela, Burgeos, or Soria. It has an unusual book order after the Prophets, only known in one other Bible, the Dublin Ibn Gaon Bible made in Tudela circa 1300. The parchment leaves, in quires of eight, are ruled in hard point and the text is written in three columns of Iberian Sephardic square script (except in Job and Psalms, which are written in two columns). The masorah are written in micrography and arranged in decorative borders. The Bible is otherwise relatively simply decorated, with two carpet pages at the beginning and one at the end; an illustration of a harp at the end of Psalms; and marginal decorations marking the parashot (weekly Torah portions).

Notes

• Parchment of the leaves is high-quality goatskin from young goats, according to Nicholas Pickwoad
   
• Written with a reed pen, according to Rachel Beckwith
   

Extent

Ii+439+ii; 234 x 220 mm bound to 255 x 236 mm

Collation

1 (5, +1 +2 +3 +4 +5), 2-54 (8), 55 (6), 56 (4)

Support

Parchment

Binding

Modern leather with parchment flyleaves

Layout

Three columns (except in Job and Psalms, written in two columns) of thirty lines; ruled in hard point, with inner and outer pricking; written area: 165 x 147 mm

Decoration

Greater masoretic notes, also called the large Masorah, are written in micrography and braided into a decorative ribbon pattern throughout; at the end of every section there is a gold U-shaped design that contains the number of verses in each section, written in smaller print; at the end of Psalms is an illustration of a harp instead (fol. 336r); the start of each parasha (weekly Torah portion) is indicated by an marginal ornament with a number in the center; similar ornaments mark the beginning of each chapter in Psalms; the first two pages and one page at the end are intricately decorated in a diamond pattern with micrography (carpet pages); the text for the first carpet page comes from Psalms 119, 150, and 106 (fol. 1r); the zig-zag text on the second carpet page are Masoretic notes (fol. 1v); the final carpet page in the manuscript has three large lines of Hebrew text from the opening lines of Psalm 37:5: "Turn your ways to the Lord, and trust" (fol. 439v)

Script

Iberian Sephardic square

Scribe: Shlomo, son of Moshe

Colophon

I, Shlomo, son of Moshe (may his memory be blessed) have written and passed on these twenty-four books to the esteemed and learned Rabbi Yehoshua, son of the esteemed and learned Rabbi Zicharya, the honored son of the wise and venerable Sh'alti'el (may his likeness be guarded and kept alive). May God enable him, his children and his children's children to meditate upon them until the end of all generations and fulfill, as it is written: "Let not this Book of the Teaching cease from your lips, but recite it day and night, so that you may observe faithfully all that is written in it. Only then will you prosper in your undertakings and only then will you be successful." Completed in the month of Adar, the year 5026 since the creation of the world (translation by David Cook of text on p. 855).

Provenance

• Rabbi Joshua, son of Rabbi Zicharya; Nissim, son of Rabi Amram, purchased 1715-1716; Shlomo Cohen, purchased 1750-1751; possibly purchased by J. Rendel Harris in Jerusalem, circa 1892; gift of J. Rendel Harris
   

Related resources

• Rogers, Robert W. A Catalogue of Manuscripts (Chiefly Oriental) in the Library of Haverford College. Haverford College Studies, no. 4. (Haverford, Pennsylvania: Haverford College, 1949), pp. 28-30.
• Berkowitz, David, In Remembrance of Creation: Evolution of Art and Scholarship in the Medieval and Renaissance Bible (Waltham, Massachusetts: Brandeis University Press, 1968), p. 12.
• Legacies of Genius: A Celebration of Philadelphia Libraries, edited by Edwin Wolf (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries, 1988), p. 105.
• Beckwith, Rachel, "Haverford College's Thirteenth-Century Hebrew Bible: A Case Study in Manuscript Attribution" Manuscripta 42, no. 1 (March 1998): pp. 30-52.
• Stern, David, Chosen: Philadelphia's Great Hebraica (Philadelphia: Rosenbach Museum & Library, 2007), pp. 18-19.
• Halperin, Dalia-Ruth, "Decorated Masorah on the openings between quires in Masoretic Bible manuscripts," Journal of Jewish Studies 65, no. 2 (2014): pp. 323-348.

Keywords

• Bible
• 13th century
• Sephardi
• Spanish
• Micrography
• Spain
• Missing leaves
• Colophon

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Quaker & Special Collections Rendel Harris 1: Masoretic Bible are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  To the extent possible under law, Haverford College, Quaker and Special Collections has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about Quaker & Special Collections Rendel Harris 1: Masoretic Bible. This work is published from: United States. For a summary of CC0, see https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Legal code: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode

Table of contents

• fol. 2v — [Bible]
• fol. 436r — [Colophon]
• fol. 436v — [List of precepts]

Decorations

• fol. 1r — Full-page decoration, Carpet page
• fol. 1v — Full-page decoration, Carpet page
• fol. 336r — Small illustration, Harp
• fol. 436r — Decorated border
• fol. 436v — Arched text column frames
• fol. 437r — Arched text column frames
• fol. 437v — Arched text column frames
• fol. 438r — Arched text column frames
• fol. 438v — Arched text column frames
• fol. 439r — Arched text column frames
• fol. 439v — Full-page decoration, Carpet page