Collection ID: 0047 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Tana"kh (תנ"ך)

Funders

• The Polonsky Foundation

Call number

Harley MS 1528
(London, United Kingdom, British Library, Hebrew Manuscripts Digitisation Project)

Alternate identifiers

• http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_1528
• https://www.bl.uk/hebrew-manuscripts

Publisher

British Library

Language

Hebrew

Origin

Place

SpainCatalonia

Summary

Bible with masorah magna and parva (the 'Harley Catalan Bible').

Notes

• David Finzi ben Menahem Finzi (or Panzi?): inscribed with his name (folio 424r 424r).
   
• Eliyaḳim ben Hosheʿa Finzi (or Panzi?): sold it to Yaʿaḳov ben Avraham of Sforno on Tuesday 29 April 5271 (1511) (folio 11r).
   
• Illegible inscription in Latin characters (folio 374r).
   
• Jacob Geraldino, censor: inscribed with his name, 12 December 1555 (folio 422v); see 104.
   
• Luigi da Bologna, a converted Jew working for the Inquisition as censor (active at the end of the sixteenth, beginning of seventeenth century): inscribed with his name as censor: 'Visto per mi Fra Luigi da Bologna del 1602 in Reggio' (folio 422v); see 104.
   

Extent

424 folios; 424 folios

Support

Parchment

Binding

Post-1600. Brown leather binding with the initials 'MB' (presumably Margaret Bentinck). Spine: 'Bible. Hebrew. Brit. Mus. Harley 1528.'

Layout

Columns: 3; ruled lines: 32; written lines: 32; Watermark, of a lamb holding a cross (folio [ii recto]) and initials of JW (folio [425r]), of James Whatman II, paper maker (1764-1793). Gilt edges. Foliation is written on the verso side of the leaves. Hebrew foliation from folio 11. Hair side and flesh side are distinguishable. Ruling is sometimes visible. Numerous decorations: full page miniatures in colours and gold of Temple implements, 12 full-page arcades in colours, masorah in micrographic design. Masorah magna occupies two lines at the top and three lines at the bottom of each page. It is also written in the outer margin in the form of ornamental figures, mostly a candlestick. Joshua, Isaiah, Nahum, Habakuk, Haggai, Ruth and Esther begin a new column, and Zechariah begins a new leaf.

Script

Sefardi square script of second or third quarter of 14th century, punctuated. Two folios in unpunctuated Ashkenazi square script.

Provenance

• 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.
   

Related resources

• Manuscript description based on Margoliouth, G.: Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the British Museum, London 1965.

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of British Library Harley MS 1528: Tana"kh (תנ"ך) 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, British Library has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about British Library Harley MS 1528: Tana"kh (תנ"ך). 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. 1v — Masoretic lists
• fol. 11v — Genesis
• fol. 36v — Exodus
• fol. 58r — Leviticus
• fol. 73r — Numbers
• fol. 94r — Deuteronomy
• fol. 113v — Joshua
• fol. 127r — Judges
• fol. 140v — Samuel
• fol. 172v — Kings
• fol. 206r — Isaiah
• fol. 229r — Jeremiah
• fol. 260r — Ezekiel
• fol. 287r — Hosea
• fol. 290v — Joel
• fol. 292r — Amos
• fol. 294v — Obadiah
• fol. 295r — Jonah
• fol. 296r — Micah
• fol. 298r — Nahum
• fol. 299r — Habakkuk
• fol. 300r — Zephaniah
• fol. 301r — Haggai
• fol. 302r — Zechariah
• fol. 306r — Malachi
• fol. 307v — Ruth
• fol. 309r — Psalms
• fol. 336v — Job
• fol. 347r — Proverbs
• fol. 356r — Ecclesiastes
• fol. 359v — Song of Songs
• fol. 361r — Lamentations
• fol. 363v — Daniel
• fol. 371v — Esther
• fol. 376r — Ezra
• fol. 389r — Chronicles
• fol. 422v — Masoretic lists