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>Masorah and Text Criticism
More details
Publisher:
Collaborators:
  • David and Jemima Jeselsohn Collection
Year:
2014
Catalog number :
45-132012
ISBN:
978-965-493-786-3
Pages:
344
Language:
Weight:
2000 gr.
Cover:
Hardcover

Masorah and Text Criticism

In the Early Modern Mediterranean Moshe Ibn Zabara and Menahem de Lonzano

Synopsis
MS Zurich, Jeselsohn 5, is the first half of a Sefardi Masoretic Bible completed by Moshe Ibn Zabara in 1477, which was later heavily glossed, especially in the Pentateuch, by Menahem de Lonzano. The other half of the manuscript is preserved in MS Sassoon 1209. This study first examines Zabara’s work in the manuscript, in comparison with his other manuscripts. The main part of this study is devoted to Menahem de Lonzano: his biography and bibliography, his wide-ranging text critical work, and his detailed work on the Zabara Bible. The volume is illustrated with approximately 150 color photos, with a concentration of 32 photographs in appendix 1 of folios in MS Jeselsohn 5 with micrography. 
Two other appendices by specialists are devoted to the decoration program and to the palaeography and codicology of MS Jeselsohn 5; the former by Andreina Contessa, the latter by Tamar Leiter and Shlomo Zucker.
Reviews

"Penkower and his colleagues are to be congratulated for this book, which provides a superb entry into the textual world and mentality of medieval and early modern Jewish textual criticism, based on one of the last great biblical manuscripts of the Spanish Jewish golden age."Review of Biblical Literature, by Ronald Hendel, May 2017

"This meticulous study, which does not spare space for explanations, profusely illustrated with examples and photographs, is recommended not only for the comprehensive treatment of its subject … but – and this is no less important - also for its high pedagogical value, both with respect to textual study, as well as material study." (Quote translated from French review) - Revue des études juives, by Jean-Pierre Rothschild, January 2016 (French)

"The…main part of the book…forms an admirable meticulous analysis of Lonzano’s glosses, which demonstrates simultaneously both an intimate knowledge of his printed works as well as the corresponding contemporary and older Jewish and Christian-Hebraist literature, and a mastery in dealing with sources, such as can be acquired only after years of lengthy research devoted to them."(Quote translated from German review) - Judaica, by Prof. Dr. Stefan Schreiner (Tubingen), May 2016 (German)

"An impressive work, illustrated with approximately 150 color photos of micrography, Penkower’s volume should appeal to a broad audience, from those studying Renaissance and early modern Jewish history to those seeking knowledge of Biblical text criticism and history of the Book." - Jewish book council, by Randall C. Belinfante, April 2016

 "This book brings the reader to the worktable of leading textual scholars in Jewish studies, allowing him or her to peer over their shoulder as they ply their trade in examining a manuscript. With an abundance of high quality photographs and methodical prose, Jordan Penkower explains the significance of a newly rediscovered manuscript copy of the Bible, copied in the fifteenth century by Moses ibn Zabara, a famed Iberian scribe who specialized in biblical codices." - AJL Reviews, by: Pinchas Roth, September 2015

Besheva, by: Rabbi Yoel Katan, February 2015