Download or read book Unveiled Faces of Medieval Hebrew Books written by Malachi Beit-Arié and published by Jerusalem : Hebrew University Magnes Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines five different aspects of the production of medieval Hebrew manuscripts while attempting to check whether the manuscripts reflect a clear historical process of progress and rationalization: ergometrically amelioration of the technical production procedures, growing efficiency in copying, greater comfort of reading and clarity of the text hierarchy, and greater faithfulness to the copied text. The study addresses the question whether the history of Jewish handwritten book production and consumption until the beginning of Hebrew printing mirrors compromises between economic constraints and functional needs or optimization of production process, as it is claimed by Ezio Ornato concerning Western manuscripts, or it is possible to discern the dominant impact of interests other than economic or functional in the history of the fabrication of Hebrew books, such as the esthetical and the rethorical . These aspects are analyzed while deploying the unique empirical procedure of Hebrew quantitative codicology, based on a database of codicological features of all the extant dated Hebrew manuscripts.
Download or read book The Book written by F. J. F. Suarez and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2013-10-24 with total page 937 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A concise edition of the highly acclaimed Oxford Companion to the Book, this book features the 51 articles from the Companion plus 3 brand new chapters in one affordable volume. The 54 chapters introduce readers to the fascinating world of book history. Including 21 thematic studies on topics such as writing systems, the ancient and the medieval book, and the economics of print, as well as 33 regional and national histories of 'the book', offering a truly global survey of the book around the world, the Oxford History of the Book is the most comprehensive work of its kind. The three new articles, specially commissioned for this spin-off, cover censorship, copyright and intellectual property, and book history in the Caribbean and Bermuda. All essays are illustrated throughout with reproductions, diagrams, and examples of various typographical features. Beautifully produced and hugely informative, this is a must-have for anyone with an interest in book history and the written word.
Download or read book Texts in Transit in the Medieval Mediterranean written by Y. Tzvi Langermann and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2016-09-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays studies the movement of texts in the Mediterranean basin in the medieval period from historical and philological perspectives. Rejecting the presumption that texts simply travel without changing, the contributors examine closely the nature of these writings, which are concerned with such topics as science and medicine, and how they changed over the course of their journeys. Transit and transformation give texts new subtexts and contexts, providing windows through which to study how memory, encryption, oral communication, cultural and religious values, and knowledge traveled and were shared, transformed, and preserved. This volume broadens how we think about texts, communication, and knowledge in the medieval world. Aside from the editors, the contributors are Mushegh Asatryan, Brian N. Becker, Leonardo Capezzone, Leigh Chipman, Ofer Elior, Zohar Hadromi-Allouche, B. Harun Küçük, Israel M. Sandman, and Tamás Visi.
Download or read book Jewish Book Art Between Islam and Christianity written by Qaṭrîn Qôǧman-Appel and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses the decoration types of Sephardic illuminated Bibles in their broader historical, and social context in an era of cultural transition in Iberia and culture struggle within Spanish Jewry.
Download or read book The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture written by Colum Hourihane and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 4064 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers unparalleled coverage of all aspects of art and architecture from medieval Western Europe, from the 6th century to the early 16th century. Drawing upon the expansive scholarship in the celebrated 'Grove Dictionary of Art' and adding hundreds of new entries, it offers students, researchers and the general public a reliable, up-to-date, and convenient resource covering this field of major importance in the development of Western history and international art and architecture.
Download or read book Shabbatai Donnolo s Sefer akhmoni written by Piergabriele Mancuso and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010-04-06 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written in southern Italy in the tenth century, Shabbatai Donnolo’s Sefer Hakhmoni is one of the earliest commentaries on Sefer Yeîirah. The volume offers the critical text, an annotated English translation, and a comprehensive introduction to Donnolo and his works.
Download or read book Problems with Prayers written by Stefan C. Reif and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2012-03-12 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much of the primary research summarized here relates to Cambridge Genizah manuscripts, a thousand-year-old source that testifies to liturgical (as well, of course, as non-liturgical) developments that greatly predate other source material. When the research is concerned with pre-Genizah history, the Genizah evidence is also relevant since the historian of religious ideas must ultimately decide how to date, characterize, and conceptualize its contents and how to explain where they vary significantly from what became, or is regarded (rightly or wrongly) as having become, the standard rabbinic liturgy sanctioned by the Iraqi Jewish authorities from the ninth to the eleventh century.
Download or read book Authorship and Publicity Before Print written by Daniel Hobbins and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2012-02-28 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Widely recognized by contemporaries as the most powerful theologian of his generation, Jean Gerson (1363-1429) dominated the stage of western Europe during a time of plague, fratricidal war, and religious schism. Yet modern scholarship has struggled to define Gerson's place in history, even as it searches for a compelling narrative to tell the story of his era. Daniel Hobbins argues for a new understanding of Gerson as a man of letters actively managing the publication of his works in a period of rapid expansion in written culture. More broadly, Hobbins casts Gerson as a mirror of the complex cultural and intellectual shifts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In contrast to earlier theologians, Gerson took a more humanist approach to reading and to authorship. He distributed his works, both Latin and French, to a more diverse medieval public. And he succeeded in reaching a truly international audience of readers within his lifetime. Through such efforts, Gerson effectively embodies the aspirations of a generation of writers and intellectuals. Removed from the narrow confines of late scholastic theology and placed into a broad interdisciplinary context, his writings open a window onto the fascinating landscape of fifteenth-century Europe. The picture of late medieval culture that emerges from this study is neither a specter of decaying scholasticism nor a triumphalist narrative of budding humanism and reform. Instead, Hobbins describes a period of creative and dynamic growth, when new attitudes toward writing and debate demanded and eventually produced new technologies of the written word.
Download or read book The Masorah of Elijah ha Naqdan written by Élodie Attia and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2015-12-14 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following Levita’s statement, the Masorah transmitted by medieval illuminated manuscripts was generally considered as less significant for the study of the biblical and masoretical knowledge in the Jewish world. The biblical codices produced in Ashkenaz were considerably disregarded compared to Spanish codices. Challenging this assertion, this work engages in a reflection on the link between the standard Eastern tradition and the Ashkenazic biblical text-culture of the 13th century. Élodie Attia provides an edition of thirteen cases taken from MS Vat. Ebr. 14, offering the oldest series of Masoretic notes written inside figurative and ornamental designs. Its critical apparatus offers an unprecedented comparison with the oldest Eastern and Ashkenazic sources to evaluate if the scribe paid more attention to aesthetic details than to the textual contents. In an unexpected way, the Masoretic notes of Elijah ha-Naqdan, even written in figurative forms, show a close philological link with the Masorah of the eastern Tiberian sources and prove that the presence of figurative elements neither represents a loss nor a distortion of Masoretic knowledge, but rather illustrates a development in the Masoretic tradition.
Download or read book From Scrolls to Scrolling written by Bradford A. Anderson and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-06-22 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout history, the study of sacred texts has focused almost exclusively on the content and meaning of these writings. Such a focus obscures the fact that sacred texts are always embodied in particular material forms—from ancient scrolls to contemporary electronic devices. Using the digital turn as a starting point, this volume highlights material dimensions of the sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The essays in this collection investigate how material aspects have shaped the production and use of these texts within and between the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, from antiquity to the present day. Contributors also reflect on the implications of transitions between varied material forms and media cultures. Taken together, the essays suggests that materiality is significant for the academic study of sacred texts, as well as for reflection on developments within and between these religious traditions. This volume offers insightful analysis on key issues related to the materiality of sacred texts in the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, while also highlighting the significance of transitions between various material forms, including the current shift to digital culture.
Download or read book Talmudic and Midrashic Fragments from the Italian Genizah written by Mauro Perani and published by Casa Editrice Giuntina. This book was released on 2004 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Jewish Manuscript Cultures written by Irina Wandrey and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2017-12-18 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hebrew manuscripts are considered to be invaluable documents and artefacts of Jewish culture and history. Research on Hebrew manuscript culture is progressing rapidly and therefore its topics, methods and questions need to be enunciated and reflected upon. The case studies assembled in this volume explore various fields of research on Hebrew manuscripts. They show paradigmatically the current developments concerning codicology and palaeography, book forms like the scroll and codex, scribes and their writing material, patrons, collectors and censors, manuscript and book collections, illuminations and fragments, and, last but not least, new methods of material analysis applied to manuscripts. The principal focus of this volume is the material and intellectual history of Hebrew book cultures from antiquity to the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, its intention being to heighten and sharpen the reader’s understanding of Jewish social and cultural history in general.
Download or read book Commentary on Midrash Rabba in the Sixteenth Century written by Benjamin Williams and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-08 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Printed editions of midrashim, rabbinic expositions of the Bible, flooded the market for Hebrew books in the sixteenth century. First published by Iberian immigrants to the Ottoman Empire, they were later reprinted in large numbers at the famous Hebrew presses of Venice. This study seeks to shed light on who read these new books and how they did so by turning to the many commentaries on midrash written during the sixteenth century. These innovative works reveal how their authors studied rabbinic Bible interpretation and how they anticipated their readers would do so. Benjamin WIlliams focuses particularly on the work of Abraham ben Asher of Safed, the Or ha-Sekhel (Venice, 1567), an elucidation of midrash Genesis Rabba which contains both the author's own interpretations and also the commentary he mistakenly attributed to the most celebrated medieval commentator Rashi. Williams examines what is known of Abraham ben Asher's life, his place among the Jewish scholars of Safed, and the publication of his book in Venice. By analysing selected passages of his commentary, this study assesses how he shed light on rabbinic interpretation of Genesis and guided readers to correct interpretations of the words of the sages. A consideration of why Abraham ben Asher published a commentary attributed to Rashi shows that he sought to lend authority to his programme of studying midrash by including interpretations ascribed to the most famous commentator alongside his own. By analysing the production and reception of the Or ha-Sekhel, therefore, this work illuminates the popularity of midrash in the early modern period and the origins of a practice which is now well-established-the study of rabbinic Bible interpretation with the guidance of commentaries.
Download or read book Science in Medieval Jewish Cultures written by Gad Freudenthal and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides the first comprehensive overview by world-renowned experts of what we know today of medieval Jews' engagement with the sciences.
Download or read book Skies of Parchment Seas of Ink written by Marc Michael Epstein and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-10-11 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A superbly illustrated history of five centuries of Jewish manuscripts The love of books in the Jewish tradition extends back over many centuries, and the ways of interpreting those books are as myriad as the traditions themselves. Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink offers the first full survey of Jewish illuminated manuscripts, ranging from their origins in the Middle Ages to the present day. Featuring some of the most beautiful examples of Jewish art of all time—including hand-illustrated versions of the Bible, the Haggadah, the prayer book, marriage documents, and other beloved Jewish texts—the book introduces readers to the history of these manuscripts and their interpretation. Edited by Marc Michael Epstein with contributions from leading experts, this sumptuous volume features a lively and informative text, showing how Jewish aesthetic tastes and iconography overlapped with and diverged from those of Christianity, Islam, and other traditions. Featured manuscripts were commissioned by Jews and produced by Jews and non-Jews over many centuries, and represent Eastern and Western perspectives and the views of both pietistic and liberal communities across the Diaspora, including Europe, Israel, the Middle East, and Africa. Magnificently illustrated with pages from hundreds of manuscripts, many previously unpublished or rarely seen, Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink offers surprising new perspectives on Jewish life, presenting the books of the People of the Book as never before.
Download or read book The Hebrew Bible in Fifteenth Century Spain written by Jonathan Decter and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2012-06-22 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Hebrew Bible in Fifteenth-Century Spain: Exegesis, Literature, Philosophy, and the Arts investigates the relationship between the Bible and the cultural production of Iberian societies between the anti-Jewish riots of 1391 and the Expulsion of 1492. During this turbulent and transformative period, the Bible intersected with virtually all aspects of late medieval Iberian culture: its languages of expression, its material and artistic production, and its intellectual output in literary, philosophical, exegetic, and polemical spheres. The articles in this cross-cultural and interdisciplinary volume present instantiations of the Hebrew Bible’s deployment in textual and visual forms on diverse subjects (messianic exegesis, polemics, converso liturgy, Bible translation, conversion narrative, etc.) and utilize a broad range of methodological approaches (from classical philology to Derridian analysis).
Download or read book Visual Aspects of Scribal Culture in Ashkenaz written by Ingrid M. Kaufmann and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2019-09-02 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The medieval Ashkenazi manuscripts of the Small Book of Commandments (Sefer Mitzvot Katan, or ‘SeMaK’ for short), which was written by Isaac of Corbeil, attest a scribal culture in which rabbinical knowledge and piety were combined with creative freedom in manuscript design. This study is concerned with the creation, composition and circulation of manuscripts of the SeMaK and concentrates on the book as an artefact. The focus of the author’s attention is the manuscripts’ material nature, their artistic embellishment and the personal touches that scribes added to them. With the act of writing a text and decorating a SeMaK manuscript, they ‘appropriated’ the text, so to speak, giving it a character of its very own. They drew on a visual language in the process – or rather, on visual languages, which occupy a special place between pure writing culture and pure painting culture. It was in this area ‘in between’ the two that spontaneous touches arose, ranging from changes in the physical arrangement of the text (mise-en-page) to drawings and doodles added in the margins. An examination of paratextual elements broadens the reader’s knowledge about Jewish scribal culture and grants insights into medieval book art, material culture and Judeo-Christian co-existence in the Middle Ages as well as throwing some light on Jewish values, ideals and eschatological hopes.
