Binding: 16th century sprinkled calf over paper boards, with blind-tooling; sewn onto six supports, with raised bands; fragments of early English manuscripts used as binding waste; text block edges sprinkled red; evidence of chaining (staple holes towards the edge of lower fore-edge); blind-tooling and shelfmark on spine; spine title in gilt.Full catalogue description in SOLOContents: The text of the biblical books of Latter Prophets - Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, as well as the Twelve Minor Prophets - with David Kimhi’s commentary.Contents note: With copious marginal manuscript annotations in Latin, Hebrew and English by Thomas Wakefield.Decoration: Title page printed within a decorated woodcut border. With woodcut initial word panels.Dimensions: 322mm (height) x 234mm (width) x 71 mm (depth).Layout: Biblical text in the centre in a larger square script and Kimhi’s commentary in a semi-cursive script surrounding it. Hebrew types resembling square and semi-cursive scripts.David Kimhi (1160–1235), also known by his Hebrew acronym as the RaDaK, was a medieval rabbi, biblical commentator, philosopher, and grammarian, who was born in Narbonne in Provence. Kimhi’s commentaries on the biblical books of the Prophets are well-known, and his strength as a grammarian of the Hebrew language can be seen in his writings. He explains words following their grammatical construction and etymological development, while his commentaries contain also rabbinical, philosophical and homiletical sources. Kimhi’s works were popular among Jewish and Christian readers and his commentary on the Latter Prophets that Gershom Soncino published in 1515 in Pesaro is the second edition of this work. The first edition was printed by the Soncino in 1484 as an incunabulum.
Dimensions: 155-167 × 240-251 mm (size of leaves). 126-128 × 210 mm (size of written text).Hand: Oriental (semi-)cursive script. Written by Joseph ha-Kohen ben ʽAli ben Aharon.Record origin: Manuscript description based on Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, vol. I, by Adolf Neubauer, Oxford 1886, No. 1237, Catalogue of the Hebrew manuscripts in the Bodleian Library; Supplement of Addenda and Corrigenda to Vol. I, No. 1237, ‘An Unknown Treatise on Suffering by Abū Al-Qāsim Al-Kirmānī’ (Hebrew) Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 7 (1988) pp. 169-204 by Amos Goldreich, and on the data of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts, National Library of Israel with additional enhancements by the cataloguer.דלאלה אלחאירין
Binding: 17th century English sprinkled calf over pasteboards; with blind-tooling; double panels and fleurons; sewn onto five supports, with raised bands; blind-tooling on spine; spine title in gilt.Full catalogue description in SOLOContents note: Some annotations in pencil, perhaps written by Edward Pococke.Decoration: Title page printed within a decorated border.Dimensions: 336mm (height) × 252mm (width) × 39mm (depth).Layout: Text printed in double columns. Hebrew types resembling square and semi-cursive scripts.Encyclopedia of the Aggada in the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds. First edition of Moses Pigo’s (d. in Adrianople 1576) scholarly compendium that deals with non-legalistic exegetical texts in the classical rabbinic literature of Judaism, particularly as recorded in the Talmud and Midrash. These rabbinic texts, known as Aggadah, include folklore, historical anecdotes, moral exhortations, and practical advice that extends from business to medicine.
Binding: 17th century English sprinkled calf over paper boards; with blind-tooling; sewn onto five supports; marbled text block edges; blind tooling on spine; spine title in gilt.Full catalogue description in SOLOContents: Responsa.Contents note: Printer has not been identified.Decoration: Title page printed within an architectural border.Dimensions: 292mm (height) × 205mm (width) × 73mm (depth).Layout: Text printed in double columns. Hebrew types resembling square script.The first part of this collection of rabbinic responsa was compiled by rabbi and halakhist Elijah ben Ḥayyim (ca. 1530-1610), known as Ra’anaḥ or Morenu ha-Rav ibn Ḥayyim. Born in Adrianople and in about 1575 appointed chief rabbi in Constantinople, he was a prolific author of novellae that dealt with most tractates of the Talmud, and responsa. However, sadly just a few of his writings survived and were later published, many after his death. His responsa were highly regarded by later rabbis, as an example, by Akiva Eger (1761–1837).
Binding: 16th century sprinkled calf over paper boards, with blind-tooling; sewn onto six supports, with raised bands; fragments of early English manuscripts used as binding waste; marbled text block edges; evidence of chaining (staple holes towards edge of lower fore-edge); blind-tooling on spine; spine title in gilt.Full catalogue description in SOLOContents: The text of the biblical books of Former Prophets, that is the books of Joshua, Judges, 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings, with David Kimhi’s commentary (ff. 1a-156b).Contents note: Some marginal manuscript annotations in Latin, Hebrew and English by Thomas Wakefield.Decoration: With woodcut initial word panels.Dimensions: 324mm (height) x 228mm width x 49mm (depth).Layout: Biblical text in the centre in a larger square script and Kimhi’s commentary in a semi-cursive script surrounding it. Hebrew types resembling square and semi-cursive scripts.David Kimhi (1160–1235), also known by his Hebrew acronym as the RaDaK, was a medieval rabbi, biblical commentator, philosopher, and grammarian, who was born in Narbonne in Provence. Kimhi’s commentaries on the biblical books of the Prophets are well-known, and his strength as a grammarian of the Hebrew language can be seen in his writings. He explains words following their grammatical construction and etymological development, while his commentaries contain also rabbinical, philosophical and homiletical sources. Kimhi’s works were popular among Jewish and Christian readers and his commentary on the Former Prophets that Gershom Soncino published in 1511 in Pesaro is the second edition of this work. The first edition was printed by the Soncino in 1484 as an incunabulum.
Binding: 18th century vellum over pasteboards; sewn onto three supports; text block edges sprinkled red; with shelfmark on the spine.Contents: Canon Avicenna, Book I, sens 1-3 (ff. 1r-57r).Contents note: Marginal heading ספר בחכמות הרפואות has been added by a later, Sefardi hand.Decoration: Simple pen-work decorations to mark the beginnings of new sections (done by the scribe).Dimensions: 205 × 160 × 16 mm (size of binding); 198 × 142 mm (size of leaf).Hand: Semi-cursive Italian-Ashkenazi script, ca. 1500.Layout: Text is written in brown ink (from dark to light brown), in one column. Some marginal glosses in Hebrew.Record origin: Description based on Neubauer and Beit-Arié.Notes on the Canon Avicenna, with a lot of glosses and corrections (probably added by the user, who must have copied the medical book for his own use).
Binding: 17th century blind-tooled calf over paper boards; with imprint details in gilt and shelfmark on the spine.Full catalogue description in SOLOContents note: Bible: Pentateuch. Sermons.Decoration: Title page printed within an architectural border. Head- and tailpieces.Dimensions: 293mm (height) x 207mm (width) x 80mm (depth).Layout: Text printed in double columns. Hebrew types resembling square and semi-cursive scripts.Bet Aharon (House of Aaron) was written by Aaron Sorogon, a Jewish scholar who was active in the Ottoman Empire in the seventeenth century. His son Elihu published its editio princeps in Constantinople in 1678, after his father’s death. The book includes sixty homilies that follow the order of the sections of the Pentateuch, but there are also Sorogon’s comments on the ‘En Ya’aḳov’ (i.e., Jacob Habib’s aggadic collection).
Binding: Early 18th century Oxford calf over pasteboards; with blind-tooled panels and fleurons; sewn onto five supports, with raised bands; gilded imprint details and shelfmark on the spine; text block edges sprinkled red.Full catalogue description in SOLOContents: Saʿadia’s Book of Beliefs and Opinions is prefaced by an introduction and has ten chapters. 1. The creation of the world; 2. The unity of the Creator; 3. Revelation and the Commandments; 4. Free will: obedience and disobedience; 5. Merit and demerit; 6. The soul and death; 7. The resurrection of the dead; 8. Messianic redemption; 9. The world to come; 10. Moral conduct, thought and belief.Contents note: Some text has been underlined and there are several marginal annotations in Hebrew, Latin and Arabic, perhaps written by Edward Pococke, in pencil.Decoration: Title printed within an ornamental border.Dimensions: 208mm (height) x 159mm (width) x 42mm (depth).Layout: Text printed in a single column. Hebrew types resembling square and semi-cursive scripts.First printed edition of Saʿadia Gaon’s Emunot ṿeha-de‘ot (Kitāb al-amānāt wa-al-iʿatiqādāt), i.e. the Book of Beliefs and Opinions. This seminal work that was compiled in 933 is probably the first systematic attempt to synthesize the Jewish tradition with philosophical teachings. The original version was written in Judeo-Arabic in Hebrew letters, while the first Hebrew translation was done in 1186 by Judah ben Saul ibn Tibbon. In the book, the views of rabbinic Judaism are defended against those of karaite Judaism.
Binding: Late 16th or early 17th century calf over wooden boards, with blind-tooled panels and rolls and centrepiece ornaments on both boards; sewn onto four supports, with raised bands; remains of metal clasps; text block edges sprinkled red.Full catalogue description in SOLOContents note: Includes vocalised text of Five Scrolls. Some marginal manuscript annotations in Hebrew in Sephardi cursive script.Decoration: Title page decorated with simple floral motifs.Dimensions: 200mm (height) x 158mm (width) x 48mm (depth).Layout: Biblical text in a larger square script and vocalised; Almosnino’s commentary that surrounds it is in a semi-cursive script. Hebrew types resembling square and semi-cursive scripts.Moses Almosnino was an eminent Jewish rabbi in the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century (born in Salonica in ca. 1515 and died in Constantinople in ca. 1580). He was known for his erudition not only in the rabbinic sources but also for his interest in science, i.e. natural physics and astronomy. His ‘Yede Mosheh’ (Hands of Moses) that was printed in Salonica, around 1571-1572 is the first edition of his lengthy commentary on the biblical Five scrolls (i.e. the books of Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther).
Binding: 17th century English sprinkled calf over pasteboards; with blind-tooled panels and corner fleurons; sewn onto five supports; title in gilt and shelfmark on the spine; text block edges sprinkled brown; evidence of chaining (staple holes towards the edge of lower fore-edge); paper tab at the head of lower board.Full catalogue description in SOLODecoration: "Woodcuts: Bomberg's architectural title pageDecoration: featuring a large arch supported by two columns adorned with flowers and leafy branches; small floriated cartouche enclosing initial word at beginning of text."Dimensions: 317mm (height) × 217mm (width) × 35mm (depth)Layout: Text printed in Hebrew type, in two columns and marginal annotations. Block print, vowelized on demonstrative and quoted passages; marginalia in cursive script (so-called Rashi script).Hebrew grammar and lexicon, edited by Elijah Levita, with the assistance of Cornelius Adelkind. At end, a poem and ending note by Solomon ben Mazal Tov. An interleaved copy, with copious manuscript annotations in English, Hebrew and Latin, written at least by three different hands.
Binding: Brown leather binding, repaired, gold-tooled.Collation: Quires of 8 leaves up to f. 169, after f. 169 10 leaves; catchwords at the end of the quires.Contents note: Commentaries in the margins. The name Menaḥem is pointed out on fol. 65r.Contents note: Refoliated. The references in Neubauer should be amended, as follows: for ‘fol. 28b’ read fol. 33v; ‘63’, 73; ‘70b’, 80v; ‘96b’, 106v; ‘97’, 107; ‘111’, 121; ‘112b’, 122v; ‘114b’, 124v; ‘115’, 125; ‘115b’, 125v; ‘116b’, 126v; ‘117b’, 127v; ‘119’, 129; ‘121’, 131; ‘122’, 132; ‘145b’, 155v; ‘146’, 156; ‘147b’, 157v; ‘148b’, 158v; ‘149’, 159; ‘150’, 160; ‘153’, 163; ‘153b’, 163v; ‘156b’, 166v; ‘157’, 167; ‘159’, 169; ‘160’, 170; ‘165’, 175; ‘176b’, 186v.Dimensions: 160 mm wide × 210 mm high (size of leaf).Hand: Ashkenazi square script. Menaḥem (?) copied up to fol. 124v (or perhaps up to fol. 128v, end of the quire). Fols. 129r-155r are copied by another hand, and fols. 155v-168v by several different hands (but fols. 155v-156v may be by the hand of the main copyist). Fols. 169-188 are part of another manuscript, written in Ashkenazi (French?) semi-cursive script. The marginal columns on fols. 65v-66v by a different hand.Layout: Drypoint ruling is often visible.Record origin: Manuscript description based on Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, vol. I, by Adolf Neubauer, Oxford 1886, No. 2138, Catalogue of the Hebrew manuscripts in the Bodleian Library; Supplement of Addenda and Corrigenda to Vol. I, No. 2138, and on the data of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts, National Library of Israel with additional enhancements by the cataloguer.Medical Treatise by Asaf the Physician.