The North French Hebrew Miscellany The North French

The North French Hebrew Miscellany

The North French Hebrew Miscellany

The North French Hebrew Miscellany

Hebrew Manuscripts: Genizah Fragments Autograph responsum of Maimonides from the Cairo Genizah, about the 12 th century. Text in Judaeo-Arabic. Some 10, 000 fragments of old Hebrew books and documents believed to be derived from the Genizah - a store room in the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo, belong also to the Hebrew manuscript collection. Acquired by the British Museum at various points during the 19 th and 20 th centuries, the fragments contain documents, letters, religious and literary texts providing valuable insight into Jewish life in the Mediterranean World during the Middle Ages.

Book of Genesis Decorated first word of the Book of Genesis. Vellum manuscript. Image taken from Duke of Sussex German Pentateuch. Originally published/produced in South Germany, c. 1300.

'Haggadah Pesach' Scenes from the old testament from the 'Haggadah Pesach', or liturgy of the Jewish Passover, with grotesque initials and gilt headings. Image taken from Sister Haggadah. Originally published/produced in Catalonia, mid 14 th century.

Scenes from the old testament from the 'Haggadah Pesach', with grotesque initials and gilt headings. Image taken from Sister Haggadah. Preparation for the Passover.

Abraham being saved from the furnace of the Chaldeans Image taken from Sister Haggadah. Originally published/produced in Catalonia, mid 14 th century.

Scenes from Exodus The top scene shows the crossing of the Red Sea. The lower scene shows Miriam and her maidens play, sing and dance. Vellum manuscript. Image taken from Sister Haggadah. Originally published/produced in Catalonia, mid 14 th century.

Illustration from a Haggadah A miniature from a Haggadah executed in the Italian style. The upper image shows four scenes depicting Moses after receiving signs from God. The lower image shows Moses' return from Egypt and the circumcision of his son. Image taken from Brother Haggadah. Originally published/produced in Catalonia, 14 th century.

Plagues Plague of boils (top); Plague of hail (lower). Image taken from Brother Haggadah. Originally published/produced in Catalonia, c. 1370 s. Scenes from Exodus The plague of the first born (upper). The Israelites despoiling the Egyptians (lower).

Frontispiece of the Book of Exodus. Duke of Sussex German Pentateuch, copied in southern Germany around 1300. The first half of the 19 th century witnessed a slow but steady expansion of the Museum's collection of Hebrew manuscripts, resulting partly from the dispersal of libraries once owned by wealthy English aristocrats, for instance that of the Marques of Lansdowne in 1807, the Earl of Bridgewater in 1829 and in July 1844 that of the Duke of Sussex, King George IV's brother. The latter library yielded six Hebrew manuscripts one of the finest being the Duke of Sussex German Pentateuch , an illuminated biblical codex copied in southern Germany around 1300.

Decorated frontispiece. Image taken from King's Bible. Originally Solsona, 1384. Author: Isaac ben Judah of Toulouse (scribe)

Various implements to the Temple Image taken from King's Bible. Originally published/produced in Solsona, 1384.

The event that transformed the Hebrew collection into a significant scholarly resource occurred in 1865, when 322 manuscripts extending from the 13 th-16 th centuries and embracing all branches of Hebrew literature, were acquired from the library of the Italian bibliophile Giuseppe Almanzi (1801 -1860). From this remarkable legacy came the Mahzor Vitry in two-volumes, a Festival prayer book copied in France around the middle of the 13 th century , the Lexicon of Menahem ben Saruk dated 1091 , probably the oldest extant copy known, and the elegant Golden Haggadah created in Catalonia at the beginning of the 14 th Almanzi Pentateuch century.

Duke of Sussex's Spanish Hebrew Bible The messianic imagery found in these splendid Hebrew Bibles is unique. Crystallised in Spain in the 13 th century and applied splendidly in this 14 thcentury manuscript, it had no apparent antecedent in Christian and Jewish art. Duke of Sussex’s Spanish Bible, Catalonia, Spain, mid-14 th century. Temple vessels

The Duke of Sussex's German Pentateuch: Book of Ecclesiastes. Southern Germany, c. 1300 This page of the Duke of Sussex's German Pentateuch shows the kind of marginal decoration often painted in Hebrew medieval manuscripts, especially in Germany. The strange beasts here are outlined in minute Hebrew lettering. As a whole, the richly-decorated book is a fine example of the South German style of illumination, with its rich, contrasting colours and exaggerated, often strangelooking faces and animals, and micrographic adornments such as these odd marginal creatures.

Italian Pentateuch This Pentateuch shows a rare example of the embellishing of initial letters in a Jewish manuscript - a practice commonly associated with Latin sacred texts, but skilfully adapted here by an anonymous Jewish scribe working in 15 th-century Italy. Duke of Sussex’s Italian Pentateuch, Italy, c. 1400. Deuteronomy 1

Decorated first word of the Book of Numbers. Vellum manuscript. Image taken from Duke of Sussex German Pentateuch. Originally published/produced in South Germany, c. 1300.

9 th-century Torah This thousand-year-old document is one of the oldest surviving examples of a Hebrew Bible codex - a manuscript written in book form rather than a scroll - and includes information from early scholars on how to pronounce and read out the sacred text. An Early Codex of the Torah, Palestine or Middle East, probably ninth century. Exodus 20

Fine example of micrography 13 , th-century Jewish art that turns minute sacred text into pictures. Images of the manuscript and description of the text.

13 th-century Pentateuch An example of a uniquely Jewish art from the 13 th-14 th century: micrography, the weaving of minute lettering into abstract or figurative designs. Scribes were discouraged from creating distracting illuminations in the main text, and so they put their ingenuity into creating micrographic designs from the masoretic notation (that is, advice to the reader on pronunciation and intonation). Pentateuch with Prophetical Readings and the Five Scrolls, France or Germany, 13 th to 14 th century.

Babylonian Talmud Origin unknown, c. 13 th– 14 th century. Gemara 13 th-century Talmud This is an exceptionally rare item: a Talmud from the Middle Ages that has somehow escaped the public burnings suffered by most of the other books of Jewish law at the time. Fortunately, it has survived unmutilated and uncensored

Spanish Hebrew Bible This 14 th-century design illuminates the Tetragrammaton: the four-letter inscription denoting the name of God. Despite lacking all representational imagery, the abstract illuminations manage to evoke the ceiling of a temple dome, and imbue the manuscript with a divine presence. Spanish Hebrew Bible, Catalonia Spain, 1384.

Mishnah, Naples, Italy, 1492. Kilayim 15 th-century Mishnah This was the first complete printed text of the Mishnah - a book of authoritative Jewish law as compiled by early rabbis. The scope of the Mishnah over everyday life and business is extensive: these pages for instance contain detailed rules on the permitted mixing of seeds in agricultural plots.

San'a Pentateuch A fine 15 th-century example of illumination in a Pentateuch. Hebrew manuscripts from Islamic lands contained no images, but were decorated with Jewish elements and adapted Islamic motifs. The handwriting style here is typical of Yemen. San’a Pentateuch, Yemen, 1469 The poem Give Ear; Deuteronomy 32.

: הבריטית שבספרייה היהודים היד כתבי בהכרת להעמיק למעוניינים Torah Codex 9 th c Gaster Bible 9 th-10 th c King David, North French Miscellany c. 1278 -98 Babylonian Talmud 13 th-14 th c Pentateuch with prophetical readings 13 th-14 th c Duke of Sussex’s German Pentateuch c. 1300 Picturing God in a Jewish manuscript c. 1300 Golden Haggadah c. 1320 Samaritan Pentateuch 1339 Duke of Sussex’s Spanish Bible mid-14 th c Barcelona Haggadah 14 th c Spanish Hebrew Bible 1384 Duke of Sussex’s Italian Pentateuch c. 1400 Portuguese Pentateuch 15 th c San’a Pentateuch 1469 Lisbon Bible 1482 First complete Mishnah 1492 Chinese Torah 1643 -63 Leipnik Haggadah 1740 Italian Ketubah 1776 Karaite Pentateuch 1835 Afghan Ketubah 1889

: מקורות http: //www. bl. uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/index. html http: //www. bl. uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/sacredthemesjonly. html http: //www. bl. uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/manuscripts http: //www. bl. uk/onlinegallery/ttpbooks. html http: //www. imagesonline. bl. uk/gallery. asp http: //www. imagesonline. bl. uk http: //lib. cet. ac. il/pages/item. asp? item=8675&kwd=6335 http: //www. jewishencyclopedia. com/view. jsp? artid=1487&letter=B http: //www. tali-virtualmidrash. org. il/Art. aspx? art=248 http: //es. wikipedia. org/wiki/Miniatura http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Miniature_(illuminated_manuscript) http: //www. imagesonline. bl. uk/results. asp http: //www. bl. uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome. htm " מצוירים עבריים יד "כתבי : נרקיס בצלאל של ספרו