PARS BIBLIORUM HEBRAICE.

MRJ number
1
College classmark
A.1

  Vellum, 12.2 x 10, ff. 303, double columns of 24 lines, except the last 4.5 leaves, which are in single columns.  Cent.13th (1260) in a fine hand, with vowel points.

  Given by R. Horne (Bp of Winchester 1560-1579) in 1546.

  Collation : 18  (wants 1-5) 28 – 58  610   78 – 148  154  168  (wants 1,  2) 178–218

[quires 19-21 ought to precede quire 16] 228  238 2410  (wants 10) 258-358

(wants 8) 368 - 398.

  There are catchwords to a majority of the quires.

  At each end is a slip of a 12th cent. Latin gloss on the Pauline Epistles.

  It is no. 95 in Kennicott’s Dissertatio Generalis.  [Copy in T.6.20 and T.6.26]  He describes it as written “charactere Hispanico” and dates it early in the 15th cent.

 

  Contents:

   Genesis, f. 1, beginning imperfectly in ch.vi.

    Exodus, f. 46. Leviticus, f.86.

    Numbers xxxi. 22 to Deut. viii. 2, f. 114.

    Numbers i.-xxi. 20, f. 136.

    Deut. viii. 3 to end, f.160.

    Song of Solomon, 185.  Ruth, 188.  Lamentations, 190b.

    Ecclesiastes, 194.  Esther, 200b.

    Job, 207b.

    Proverbs, 226.  240b blank.

    Lections from the Prophets, 241,  (detailed below):

 

f.241r Isaiah 42.5-43.7, f.241v Isaiah 54-55.5, f.242v Isaiah 40.27-41.16, f.243r Kings 2 4.1-23, f.243v Kings 1.1-31, f.244v Malachi 1-2.7, f.245v Hosea 12.13-end, f.246r Obadiah 1-end, f.247r Amos 2-3.8, f.247v Kings 1 3.15-4.1, f.248r Ezekiel 37.15-28, f.248v Kings 2.1-12, f.249r Isaiah 27.6-28.16, f.250r Ezekiel 28.25-29.21, f.250v Jeremiah 46.13-28, f.251r Judges 4.4-5.31, f.253r Isaiah 6-7.6, f.253v Jeremiah 34-35.19, f.254r Kings 5.26-6.13, f.255r Ezekiel 43.10-27, f.255v Kings 1 18.20-39, f.256v Kings 1 7.13-26, f.257r Kings 1 7.40-8.1, f.257v Isaiah 43.21-44.23, f.258r Jeremiah 7.21-9.23, f.259r Samuel 2 6.1-19, f.259v Kings 2 4.42-5.19, f.260v Kings 2 6.3-7.20, f.261v Amos 9.7-end, f.261v Ezekiel 22.1-16, f.262r Ezekiel 44.15-31, f.262v Jeremiah 32.6-22, f.263v Jeremiah 16.19-17.14, f.264r Hosea 2.1-22f.264v Judges 13.2-25, f.265v Zechariah 2.14-4.7, f.266r Joshua 2.1-24, f.267r Samuel 1 11.14-12.18, 268r Judges 11.1-24, 269r Micha 5.6-6.8, 269v Jeremiah 1.1-2.3, 270r Jeremiah 2.4-4.2, 271r Isaiah 1.1-27, 271v Jeremiah 8.13-9.23, 272v Isaiah 40.1-26, 273v Isaiah 49.14-51.3, 274v Isaiah 51.12-52.12, 275r Isaiah 60.1-22, 276r Isaiah 61.10-63.9, 276v Isaiah 55.6-56.8, 277r Hosea 14.2-end (unpointed), 277v Joel 2.15-26 (unpointed), 278r Samuel 1.1-2.10, 279r Jeremiah 31.2-20, 279v Isaiah 57.14-58.14, 280v Jonah 1.1-end, 282r Zechariah 14.1-end, 283r Kings 1 8.2-23, 283v Ezekiel 38.18-39.10, 284r Kings 1 8.54-9.5, 285r Kings 1 8.22-53 (unpointed), 286r Isaiah 66.1-end, 287r Samuel 1 20.18-42, 288r Kings 2 12.1-17, 288v Samuel 1 15.2-34, 290r Ezekiel 36.16-36, 290v Ezekiel 45.18-46.15, 291v Joshua 5.2-6.1, 292r Kings 2 23.1-25, 292v Ezekiel 37.1-14, 293r Samuel 2 22.1-51, 294r Isaiah 10.32-12.6, 294v Ezekiel 1.1-3.12, 295v Habakkuk 3.1-end.

The following are in Aramaic:

296r Joshua 5.2-6.27, 296v Kings 2 23.1-25, 297v Ezekiel 37.1-14, 297v Samuel 2 22.1-51, 299r Isaiah 10.32-12.6, 300r Ezekiel 1.1-3.12, 301r Habakkuk 3.1-end.

 

    Evidently written or adapted for the use of a Western scholar, very likely a Franciscan, for this order was addicted to the study of Hebrew.

The Latin titles of the books are written as headlines in red and blue capitals, and the chapter-numbers in red and blue Roman numerals.  There are also pencil notes in Latin of 13th-14th cent. showing the correspondence of the lections in the Pentateuch with the prophetical and other lections at the end.  A later writer has copied these, and seems to have misunderstood them.  At Exod. xxv the name Kyngston is pencilled on the lower margin.  This is no doubt the John Kingston who owned no. 2.

  At the end of Proverbs is a note which Dr I. Abrahams has kindly translated for me:

  1.  I pointed (and revised this book for my brother R. Levi on Friday of

  the Pericope Tese’ (July-August) of the year 20 of the sixth        

         thousand (5020).  May God make him worthy to study it, that it

         may not depart from his mouth and from the mouth of his seed

         henceforth  and for ever.

  2.  I, Samuel Ha-naqdan (the punctuator).

    This is followed by a short Hebrew rhyme.

    The date is thus July-August A.D. 1260.

     I gather from Dr Abrahams that the punctuation is rather more likely to have been done in France than in England at the above date.

Manuscript extra information

Pamphlets by the Institute of Hebrew Manuscripts, September 1961.

J. Olszowy-Schlanger, Les manuscrits hébreux dans l’Angleterre médiévale: étude historique et paléographique (Paris, 2003) pp. 7, 44-45, 137.
E. Poleg, 'Inanimate conversion', in Material religion: the journal of objects, art and belief. Vol.14, issue 4 (2019) pp. 485-499.