Full Description
Representing four centuries of collecting and 1,000 years of Jewish history, this book brings together extraordinary Hebrew manuscripts and rare books from the Bodleian Library and Oxford colleges. Highlights of the collections include a fragment of Maimonides' autograph draft of the 'Mishneh Torah'; the earliest dated fragment of the Talmud, exquisitely illuminated manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible; stunning festival prayerbooks and one of the oldest surviving Jewish seals in England. Lavishly illustrated essays by experts in the field bring to life the outstanding works contained in the collections, as well as the personalities and diverse motivations of their original collectors, who include Archbishop William Laud, John Selden, Edward Pococke, Robert Huntington, Matteo Canonici, Benjamin Kennicott and Rabbi David Oppenheim.
Saved for posterity by religious scholarship, intellectual rivalry and political ambition, these extraordinary collections also bear witness to the consumption and circulation of knowledge across the centuries, forming a social and cultural history of objects moved across borders, from person to person. Together, they offer a fascinating journey through Jewish intellectual and social history from the tenth century onwards.
Contents
Librarian's Foreword Richard Ovenden
Preface Martin J. Gross
Introduction to the Bodleian Library & College Collections César Merchán-Hamann
Chapter 1 The Laud Collection Giles Mandelbrote
Chapter 2 The Pococke Collection Benjamin Williams
Chapter 3 The Huntington Collection Simon Mills and César Merchán-Hamann
Chapter 4 The Kennicott Collection Theo Dunkelgrün
Chapter 5 The Canonici Collection Dorit Raines
Chapter 6 The Oppenheim Collection Joshua Teplitsky
Chapter 7 The Michael Collection Saverio Campanini
Chapter 8 The Genizah Collection Nadio Vidro
Chapter 9 The College Library Collections Rahel Fronda
From Collectors to Readers Piet van Boxel
Notes
Further Reading
Contributors
Picture Credits
Index
