Hebrew Manuscripts of the Middle Ages

An illustrated 2002 introduction to Hebrew manuscript culture from the tenth to fifteenth centuries.

Colette Sirat (Author), Nicholas De Lange (Edited and translated by)

9780521090230, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 November 2008

368 pages, 169 b/w illus.
24.4 x 17 x 1.9 cm, 0.59 kg

'C. Sirat's Hebrew Manuscripts of the Middle Ages is a long-awaited English introduction to the study of Medieval manuscripts in Hebrew script … a mature and thoroughly researched account of the unique cultural and intellectual enterprise of manuscript making, illustrated by highly relevant and striking examples of individual books and scribes from different periods and parts of the Medieval world … Hebrew Manuscripts of the Middle Ages is an important, full and fascinating introduction to the study of Hebrew book-making in the Middle Ages, and it can be recommended to students, scholars and all those interested in Hebrew manuscripts, as well as in Jewish literature and intellectual history in general.' Journal of Jewish Studies

Hebrew manuscripts are our most important source of knowledge about Jewish intellectual, religious and everyday life in the Middle Ages, and anyone wishing to engage with medieval Jewish history needs to know about the manuscripts themselves, how to study them, and the literary genres to which they belong. Colette Sirat offers a comprehensive overview of these subjects in this illustrated introduction to Hebrew manuscript culture. This 2002 work is a considerably re-structured, extended and updated version of an earlier presentation in French. It now encompasses all aspects of Hebrew manuscripts - textual, codicological and palaeographical - combining different disciplines to give an all-embracing view of the subject. The volume has been translated from the author's revision of her earlier French book, and edited for an English readership, by leading Hebrew scholar Nicholas de Lange, who worked closely with Professor Sirat in the preparation of the new book.

Introduction
Part I. Texts: 1. Before the Middle Ages
2. The Middle Ages
Part II. Books: 3. Codicology
4. Writing: calligraphic and personal subjects
5. The scribe
Appendix. Abbreviations, acrostics and the meaning of the Hebrew letters
Part III. The History of Books and Texts: 6. The life and death of manuscripts
7. Libraries
8. Questions of method: codicology and palaeography
9. Texts, copies and text-editions
10. Judgement on readings and the edition of texts
Part IV. Some Manuscripts: 11. Ten manuscripts: pictures and detailed descriptions.

Subject Areas: Judaism [HRJ], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], European history [HBJD], Biography: general [BG], History of art: ancient & classical art,BCE to c 500 CE [ACG]