Description of British Library, Harley MS 1861: Torah ʿim perush Rash"i, megilot ṿe-hafṭarot (תורה עם פרוש רש"י, מגילות והפטרות) contributor Ilana Tahan cataloger Agata Paluch The Polonsky Foundation British Library 2023-02-07 2023-02-07 These images and the content of British Library Harley MS 1861: Torah ʿim perush Rash"i, megilot ṿe-hafṭarot (תורה עם פרוש רש"י, מגילות והפטרות) 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/. To the extent possible under law, British Library has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about British Library Harley MS 1861: Torah ʿim perush Rash"i, megilot ṿe-hafṭarot (תורה עם פרוש רש"י, מגילות והפטרות). 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. Ḥayim bar Yaʿaḳov Raʿagi: inscribed with his name (folios 307v, 311r, 311v); acrostic of Yaʿaḳov, 15th century (folio 230r). Meʾir bar Meʾir : inscribed with his name, 15th century (folios 307v, 311v). Shemuʾel bar Meʾir : inscribed with his name, 15th century (folio 310v); acquisition note by the same hand (folio 311r ). Meʾir Shemuʾel: inscribed with his name, 15th century (folio 4r). Meʾir: inscription in Hebrew: 'I am Meʾir', 15th century (folio 308v). Humfrey Wanley (b. 1672, d. 1726), Old English scholar and librarian: inscribed with his name: 'Liber Humfredi Wanley' (folio 1r ) (). Illegible Hebrew inscriptions (folio 4r). On the inner sides of the cover there is a leaf pasted in, belonging to what appears to have been a Latin Law Dictionary of c16th century. Manuscript description based on Margoliouth, G.: Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the British Museum, London 1965. United Kingdom London British Library Hebrew Manuscripts Digitisation Project Harley MS 1861 http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_1861 https://www.bl.uk/hebrew-manuscripts Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary and Targum Onḳelos; the Five Scrolls; the Hafṭarot; Job with Rashi's commentary and Megilat Antiochus. Aka 'Abraham's Pentateuch and Rashi'. Hebrew; Jewish Babylonian Aramaic (ca. 200-1200 CE) Torah ʿim perush Rash"i, megilot ṿe-hafṭarot (תורה עם פרוש רש"י, מגילות והפטרות) 1v A list of Psalms 4v Genesis 57v Exodus 101r Leviticus 132v Numbers 178r Deuteronomy 220r Song of Songs 223v Ruth 226r Lamentations 231r Ecclesiastes 239r Esther 245r Hafṭarot for the whole year. 289r Job 309r Megilat Antiochus

Parchment

 311 folios; 311 folios Columns: 1 2; ruled lines: 23 30; written lines: 22 29; Watermarks on , and on . The first watermark is a hand, the second watermark is a vase with a crescent at the top and a monogramm (CO?), similar to 3603 (dated to 1646, England). Single leaves were written by another scribe; their codicological elements being different from those by the original scribe. At the bottom of these pages, one can discern the scribe's attempts to enlarge the letters in order to fit the text into the remaining empty spaces. These leaves were glued into the margins of now-missing pages which were torn out from the original Pentateuch. Ashkenazi square and semi-cursive script, partially punctuated. Avraham ben Yitsḥaḳ: inscribed with his name in two colophons and an additional scribal formula: 'Grow stronger and let us grow stronger. May no harm befall on Abraham [ben ha-ḳadosh rabi Yitsḥaḳ] the copyist not today and not ever until the donkey ascends the ladder to the heavens about which our father Yaʿaḳov had dreamed' [English translation], 14th century (219r, 288r, 307r); the name Avram and Avraham is decorated several times, (e.g. 14r, 21r, 141v, 186r, 307r). Yaʿaḳov: inscribed with his name on folio 230r: may the owner of the book have eternal life for volunteering to write the missing pages. It appears that Yaʿaḳov acquired the Pentateuch with a few of its pages missing and he himself filled in the missing gaps.

Post-1600. Black leather with the Harley arms in the centre.

Between 1325 and 1349

Germany Acquisition: The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts. Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d.1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.