Oriental manuscripts: Hebrew manuscripts

Item

Country

GB

Name of institution (official language of the state)

British Library

Language of name of institution

eng

Contact information: postal address

96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB

Contact information: phone number

0044 (0)1937 546060 (Customer Services)

Contact information: web address

https://www.bl.uk/subjects/manuscripts-and-archives#

Contact information: email

mss@bl.uk

Reference number

Or.

Type of reference number

Archival reference number

Title (official language of the state)

Oriental manuscripts: Hebrew manuscripts

Language of title

eng

Creator / accumulator

British Library

Language(s)

heb

eng

por

spa

Type of material

Textual Material

Scope and content

The Oriental manuscripts collection of the British Library contains a vast number of Hebrew manuscripts, in particular biblical and liturgical manuscripts, as well as rare literary, philosophical, and scientific treatises. Among its Hebrew holdings, there are several volumes of Sephardic origins, such as the following:
Or. 2737: the "Hispano-Moresque Haggadah", a Haggadah for Passover, written in Sephardic square script, and produced in Spain in the last quarter of the 13th century or first quarter of the 14th century.
Or. 2201: the "First Ibn Merwas Bible", Spanish Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible with Masorah, written in Sephardic square script, and copied by Joseph ben Judah ben Merwas in Toledo in the 14th century.
Or. 2884: the "Sister Haggadah", a Haggadah for Passover, written in Sephardic square script, and produced in Barcelona in the second or third quarter of the 14th century.
Or. 14061: Maimonides's Guide of the Perplexed (Moreh Nevukhim), written in Sephardic square and semi-cursive script, and copied by Levi ben Isaac ben Caro of Salamanca in the second or third quarter of the 14th century.
Or. 1404: the "Brother Haggadah", a Haggadah with commentary and liturgical poems for Passover, written in Sephardic square script, and produced in Catalonia, in the third quarter of the 14th century.
Or. 1424: biblical readings and liturgical poems for Passover, written in Sephardic square and semi-cursive script, and produced in Catalonia in the third quarter of the 14th century.
Or. 2396: a manuscript copy of Iggeret ha-musar dating from 1382.
Or. 11594: a Mahzor for the whole year with the commentary of Joseph Zaddik, written in Sephardic square, semi-cursive and cursive script, and produced in Spain in the first half of the 15th century.
Or. 2626, Or. 2627 and Or. 2628: the so-called "Lisbon Bible", a Hebrew Bible with masorah magna and parva, written in Sephardic square script and copied by Samuel ben Samuel ibn Musa in 1483.
Or. 1045: David Kimhi's Sefer Mihlol and Et Sofer, produced in Lisbon in 1487.
Or. 6363: Josué ha-Levi's Sefer Halikot 'olam, produced in Lisbon in 1489.
Or. 1425: Profiat Duran's Ma῾aseh efod, written in Sefardic semi-cursive scripts of the 15th to 16 century.
Or. 10688: an Aljamiado version of Leão Hebreu's Diálogos de Amor, 16th century.
Or. 8697: an 18th-century Portuguese collection of tales based on biblical and midrashic stories.
Or. 8698: an 18th-century collection of Spanish and Portuguese essays and responsa on topics of Jewish apologetics and divinity, compiled by Matatia de Immanuel Aboab.
Digital copies of some manuscripts are available online:

Or. 1404

Or. 2201

Or. 2626

Or. 2627

Or. 2628

Or. 2737

Or. 2884

Or. 8697

Or. 8698

Or. 14061

Archival history

The British Museum began acquiring Oriental manuscripts over 200 years ago, either through purchase or donation. Since 1973, the British Library has continued to gather more and more Hebrew manuscripts to the collection. Currently, the Hebrew collections held at the British Library comprise around 3,000 manuscript volumes and about 75,000 book titles, mostly in Hebrew, but also including works in other languages, such as Aramaic, Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Italian, Judeo-Persian, Judeo-Spanish, Yiddish, among others. Additionally, the Britsh Library preserves around 7,000 manuscript fragments, mainly from the Cairo Genizah, nearly 1,000 Hebrew and Yiddish periodical and newspaper titles, and considerable numbers of manuscripts, printed books, and periodicals in microforms.

Sources:

Hebrew collections

Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts

Administrative / Biographical history

The British Library was founded in 1973, following the British Library Act. Several organisations were brought together to create a national library, including the British Museum.
The British Museum was created in 1753 as "one general repository" to hold the collections of Sir Hans Sloane, Sir Robert Cotton, and Robert and Edward Harley. When it inherited the library of George III in 1823, its printed books doubled in number, prompting a move to the site of the current British Museum. Opening in 1857, the British Museum Library’s Round Reading Room became an iconic destination in the literary landscape of London. The room welcomed many famous visitors including Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Karl Marx, George Bernard Shaw, and Virginia Woolf. During World War II, some of the British Museum Library's most precious treasures were moved to a secure cave in Aberystwyth, with round-the-clock guards.
The actual British Library's building in St Pancras opened its doors to the public in November 1997. The Library became the largest public building constructed in Britain in the last 100 years.
Over the last 250 years, the British Library has become one of the greatest libraries in the world. Its physical collections are growing all the time and so are its digital collections, which include Digitised Manuscripts, the UK Web Archive, and over one million rights-free images.

(source: History of the British Library)

Access points: locations

Amsterdam (Netherlands)

Barcelona (Spain)

Catalonia

Lisbon (Portugal)

Spain

Toledo (Spain)

Access points: persons, families

Aboab, Immanuel

Aboab, Mattatia de Immanuel

Abravanel, Judah (Leão Hebreu)

Aguilar, Moses Raphael de

Caro, Levi ben Isaac ben

ha-Levi, Josué

Kimḥi, David

Levi Morteira, Saul (Saul Levi Mortera)

Maimon, Mosheh ben (Maimonides)

Merwas, Joseph ben Judah ben

Montalto, Filotheo Elias (Elijah)

Montalto, Isaac

Musa, Samuel ben Samuel ibn

Naar, Isaac

Access points: subject terms

Portuguese Medieval Jewry

Sephardic manuscripts

Spanish Medieval Jewry

Aljamiado

Haggadah

Liturgy and ritual

13th century

14th century

15th century

16th century

18th century

Access points: document types

Bible

Exegesis

Illuminated manuscripts

Jewish liturgy

Literature

Philosophy

Religion

Responsa

Treatises

Access, restrictions

Digital copies of some manuscripts are available at:

The British Library: Digitised Manuscripts

Finding aids

Margoliouth, George. 1899. Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the British Museum. 3 vols. London: British Museum.

Links to finding aids

The British Library: Explore Archives and Manuscripts

The British Library Digital Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts

Author of the description

Joana Rodrigues, 2022

Bibliography

Gutmann, J. 1987. "The Sacrifice of Isaac in Medieval Jewish Art." Artibus et Historiae, 8 (16), 67. https://doi.org/10.2307/1483301.

Kogman-Appel, K. 1997. "The Sephardic Picture Cycles and the Rabbinic Tradition: Continuity and Innovation in Jewish Iconography." Zeitschrift Für Kunstgeschichte, 60, 451–481. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1482862.

Kogman-Appel, K. 2004. Jewish book art between Islam and Christianity: the decoration of Hebrew bibles in medieval Spain. Leiden; Boston: Brill.

Kogman-Appel, K. 2006. Illuminated Haggadot from medieval Spain: biblical imagery and the Passover holiday. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press.

Martin, T., & Harris, J. (Eds.). 2005. "Good Jews, Bad Jews, and No Jews at All—Ritual Imagery and Social Standards in the Catalan Haggadot." In Church, State, Vellum, and Stone (pp. 275–296). BRILL. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047416180_014.

Metzger, M. 1967. "Two Fragments of a Spanish XIVth Century Haggadah." Gesta, 6, 25–34. https://doi.org/10.2307/766664.

Metzger, T. 1977. Les Manuscripts Hébreux copiés et décorés à Lisbonne dans les derniers decénnies du XVe siècle. Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian; Centro Cultural Português.

Metzger, M., & Metzger, T. 1982. Jewish life in the Middle Ages: illuminated Hebrew manuscripts of the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries (Repr). Secaucus, NJ: Chartwell Books.

Moita, T. 2017. "O Livro Hebraico Português na Idade Média: Do Sefer He-Aruk de Seia (1284-85) aos manuscritos tardo-medievais da “Escola de Lisboa” e aos primeiros incunábulos." [PhD thesis]. Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa.

Narkiss, B. 1982. Hebrew illuminated manuscripts in the British Isles: a catalogue raisonné. Published by the Oxford University Press for the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the British Academy.

Novoa, J. N. 2005. "Consideraciones acerca de una versión aljamiada de los Diálogos de amor de León Hebreo." Sefarad, 65 (1), 103–126. https://doi.org/10.3989/sefarad.2005.v65.i1.493

Ortega Monasterio, M. T. 2005. "Los códices modelo y los manuscritos hebreos bíblicos españoles." Sefarad, 65 (2), 353–383. https://doi.org/10.3989/sefarad.2005.v65.i2.502

Ortega Monasterio, M. T. 2008. "Apéndices masoréticos en manuscritos bíblicos españoles." Sefarad, 68 (2), 343–368. https://doi.org/10.3989/sefarad.2008.v68.i2.468

Sed-Rajna, G. 1970. Manuscrits hébreux de Lisbonne; un atelier de copistes et d’enlumineurs au XVe siècle. Paris: Éditions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique.

Shalev-Eyni, S. 2010. "Who are the Heirs of the Hebrew Bible? Sephardic Visual Historiography in a Christian Context." Medieval Encounters, 16(1), 23–63. https://doi.org/10.1163/138078510X12535199002631

Published primary sources

Salvatierra Ossorio, A., & Urrutia Sánchez, T. 2013. "Iggeret ha-musar: estudio preliminar, edición y traducción de un pseudo-Aristóteles hebreo." Sefarad, 73 (1), 31–68. https://doi.org/10.3989/sefarad.013.002

Sed-Rajna, G. (Ed.). 1988. Lisbon Bible, 1482: British Library Or. 2626. Nahar Miskal.

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