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

Title

Torah, megilot ṿe-hafṭarot (תורה, מגילות והפטרות)

Funders

• The Polonsky Foundation

Call number

Harley MS 5773
(London, United Kingdom, British Library, Hebrew Manuscripts Digitisation Project)

Alternate identifiers

• http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_5773
• https://www.bl.uk/hebrew-manuscripts

Publisher

British Library

Language

Hebrew

Origin

Place

Catalonia

Summary

Pentateuch, Hafṭarot and Five Scrolls, provided with punctuation, accents, masorah magna and parva. Aka the 'London Catalan Pentateuch'.

Notes

• Italian inscription stating that this is the first volume of a three-volume Bible and that it was written in 'Castion' in mese Elul in anno 5105 (1345) e la scrittura di Ezra figlio di Jacob Adorat (these data correspond with the colophon in Harley 5775, 121,([2v]).
   

Extent

248 folios; 248 folios

Support

Parchment

Binding

Post-1600. 'Harleian' binding of black buckram. Boxed.

Layout

Columns: 2; ruled lines: 25; written lines: 25; Watermark, folios [249] and [250], of a fleur-de-lis in a crowned coat of arms and with the monogram 'WR', similar to 1784. 2 unfoliated blank leaves after folio 171. Ruling with hard point and sometimes pricking are visible. The masorah (only in the Pentateuch) occupies two lines in the upper and three lines in the lower margin. In the Pentateuch a new pericope is marked by פרש' sometimes decorated in pen and ink. Ornamental חזק written at the end of Genesis. Leviticus and Esther begin a new column, and the Hafṭarot open a new leaf.

Decoration

Numerous micrographical designs. Numerous decorated parashah signs, in ink. Pen drawing of a castle.

Script

Sefardi square script, punctuated, of the last quarter of the 14th century.

Provenance

• Acquisition: John Covel (b. 1638, d. 1722), chaplain to the Levant Company at Constantinople: in his collection (no. VIII.): inscribed ([1r]). His manuscripts were acquired for the Harley Collection for £300 in 1716; Latin inscription: de accurate Bibliorum Hebrais. .. (18th century?).
   
• Acquisition: Edward Harley: bought by him together with Covel's other manuscripts, for £300 on 27 February 1715/6 (). 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 5773: Torah, megilot ṿe-hafṭarot (תורה, 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/.

  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 5773: Torah, megilot ṿe-hafṭarot (תורה, 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.

  URL

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Table of contents

• fol. 1v — Genesis
• fol. 42v — Exodus
• fol. 80r — Leviticus
• fol. 106r — Numbers
• fol. 141r — Deuteronomy
• fol. 172r — Hafṭarot
• fol. 225r — Ruth
• fol. 227v — Song of Songs
• fol. 230r — Ecclesiastes
• fol. 236r — Lamentations
• fol. 239v — Esther