Pococke Collection

Item

Country: GB
Name of institution (official language of the state): Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford
Language of name of institution: eng
Contact information: postal address: Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BG
Contact information: phone number: 0044 1865 277162 (reader services); 0044 (0)1865 277150 (special collections)
Contact information: web address: https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/
Contact information: email: reader.services@bodleian.ox.ac.uk (reader services); specialcollections.bookings@bodleian.ox.ac.uk (special collections)
Reference number: MS. Pococke
Type of reference number: Archival reference number
Title (official language of the state): Pococke Collection
Language of title: eng
Creator / accumulator: Edward Pococke
Date(s): 1160/1700
Language(s): ara; heb; lat
Extent: 420 storage units
Type of material: Cartographic Material; Textual Material
Scope and content: The Pococke collection is composed of over 400 manuscripts gathered by Edward Pococke. It includes works in various oriental languages, such as Arabic, Armenian, Ethiopic, Persian, Samaritan, Syriac, and Hebrew. The manuscripts cover a wide range of subjects, including grammar, poetry, history, philosophy, medicine, and mathematics. The collection holds several commentaries and interpretations of the Hebrew Bible authored by Rashi, Joseph ibn Aknin, Abraham ibn Ezra, and David Kimhi, for instance.
The Pococke collection also includes a few Hebrew manuscripts produced in the Iberian Peninsula or authored by Sephardic Jews, such as the following:
MS. Pococke 296 (Neubauer 1278): Miscellany produced in Spain between the last quarter of the 13th century and the first quarter of the 14th century, including Ibn Ezra's Yesod Mora ṿe-Sod Ha-Torah (fols. 74v-85v) and Sefer ha-Shem (fols. 86r-91r); Abraham bar Hiyya Savasorda's Hegiyon ha-nefesh ha-ʿatsuvah (fols. 91v-97v); David Kimhi's Perush maʿaśeh Bereshit (fols. 181v-186v) and Perush maʿaśeh merkhavah (fols. 186v-192v); and Moses ben Shem Tov de Leon's ʿOr zarua (fols. 193r-200v).
MS. Pococke 307 (Neubauer 574): Maimonides' Mishneh Torah (Books I-V), written in Spain in the 14th century.
MS. Pococke 7 (Neubauer 56): Pentateuch (Exodus with both masorahs), produced in Spain in the 14th century.
MS. Pococke 108 (Neubauer 218): Ibn Ezra's Commentary on the Pentateuch and the Scrolls, dated 1431.
MS. Pococke 189 (Neubauer 356): Joseph ben Judah ibn Aknin's Inkishāf al-asrar watuhūr al-anwār (Commentary on Song of Songs), written in Judeo-Arabic and produced in Granada in 1435.
MS. Pococke 30 (Neubauer 32): Pentateuch with Psalms, Haftarot, Five Scrolls and Megilat Antiokhus, produced in Spain in 1483.
MS. Pococke 347-348 (Neubauer 8-9): The so-called "Oxford Hispano-Portuguese Pentateuch", a 15th-century Hebrew Bible produced in the Iberian Peninsula, divided into two volumes.
MS. Pococke 209 (Neubauer 1235): Hebrew miscellany produced in Spain in the last quarter of the 15th century.
Digital copies are available online:; Bodleian Library MS. Pococke 7; Bodleian Library MS. Pococke 296; Bodleian Library MS. Pococke 307; Bodleian Library MS. Pococke 189; Bodleian Library MS. Pococke 30; Bodleian Library MS. Pococke 347; Bodleian Library MS. Pococke 209
Archival history: In 1692, after Edward Pococke's death, the University of Oxford purchased his collection of oriental manuscripts for 800 pounds. Later, in 1822, some of his printed books were bequeathed to the Bodleian Libray by Rev. C. Francis of Brasenose.
Administrative / Biographical history: Edward Pococke (1604-1691) was an English cleric, orientalist, hebraist, and professor of Arabic and Hebrew at the University of Oxford. He began his studies in Arabic and Hebrew at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1619, and, one year later, he was admitted as a scholar of Corpus Christi College.
In 1630, one year after being ordained priest in the Church of England, Pococke moved to Aleppo to serve as a chaplain to the merchants of the Levant Company. Aside from perfecting his proficiency in several Oriental languages, he collected valuable Greek and Oriental manuscripts during his time in Syria, with the funding provided by Archbishop William Laud.
Pococke returned to England six years later. In 1636, he was appointed chancellor of the University of Oxford, to the chair of Arabic. One year later, he set out on a new journey to the East staying in Constantinopla for three years. During this time, he had the opportunity to make additions to his collection. After returning to England, his collection kept growing through the contacts he kept in the Near and Middle East.
Pococke left a remarkable work as a translator, including the translation into Latin of Maimonides' Porta Mosis (1655), a bilingual annotated edition of the Commentary on the Mishnah with the original Judeo-Arabic text presented side by side with the Latin version; and the edition of the Arabic history of Bar-Hebraeus, Greg. Abulfaragii historia compendiosa dynastiarum (1663). Pococke also authored Lexicon heptaglotton (1669) and an Arabic translation of Grotius's De veritate.
Access points: locations: Granada (Spain); Spain
Access points: persons, families: Aknin, Joseph ben Judah ibn; Eli, Isaac ben Moses; Ezra, Abraham ibn; Kimḥi, David; Leon, Moses ben Shem Tov de; Maimon, Mosheh ben (Maimonides)
Access points: subject terms: Sephardic manuscripts; Spanish Medieval Jewry; 13th century; 14th century; 15th century
Access points: document types: Bible; Exegesis
Access, restrictions: Digital copies of some manuscripts are available at:; Digital Bodleian: Pococke
Finding aids: Beit-Ariè, Malachi. 1994. Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library: Supplement of Addenda and Corrigenda to Vol. I (A. Neubauer’s Catalogue). Oxford: Clarendon Press.; Madan, Falconer. 1895. A Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford Which Have Not Hitherto Been Catalogued in the Quarto Series, with References to the Oriental and Other Manuscripts. 7 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.; Neubauer, Adolf, and A. E. Cowley. 1886-1906. Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library and in the College Libraries of Oxford, Including Mss. in Other Languages ... Written with Hebrew Characters, or Relating to the Hebrew Language or Literature; and ... Samaritan Mss. 2 vols. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.
Links to finding aids: Hebrew and Judaica Manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford University
Author of the description: Joana Rodrigues, 2022
Bibliography: Moita, Tiago. 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, Lisboa: Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa.; Narkiss, Bezalel. 1982. Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts in the British Isles: A Catalogue Raisonné. Oxford [Oxfordshire] ; New York: Published by the Oxford University Press for the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the British Academy.

Item sets: WSD Roadmap; WSD Roadmap finais; WSD Roadmap UK

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