RABBI SALOMAN (RASHI)

MRJ number
3
College classmark
A.3

    Vellum, 11.1 x 7.5, ff.178 + 3, double columns of 47 lines.  13th cent. (1238) clearly written without vowel points.

    Given by Dr. Horne in 1546.

    Collation : 2 flyleaves, 18 - 118 1210 (wants10) | 136 148 | 158 - 178 18?  (three left) | 198 - 238, one flyleaf.

    There are slips on each end from the gloss on the Epistles : and also at the end of this volume part of a leaf of a medical MS. in an Italian hand of the 14th cent.

    On the flyleaf is a list of contents, written perhaps over an older one, in the 16th cent.

      Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac's (=Rashi's) Comment. super libros.

      Josue.  Iudicum.  Samuelis.  3 librum Regum.  Ezechielem.           

      Ier(e)miam.  Isaiam.  In prophetas minores.  Cantica canticorum.   

      librum Ruth.  lamentationes Jermiae.  Ecclesiasten.  Ester.   

      Psalterium.  Proverb.  Salomonis.  Daniel.  Iob.  Paralipomena.

 

    On f. 1a  in a hand of the 13th cent. is ‘liber ebraicus.'

    The text begins on f. 1b.

    The Latin names of the books commented upon appear throughout as head-lines in pencil of the 13th cent., and also,  in the Comment on the Psalter, the Latin titles of the Psalms.

     On f. 96 is a note : Naaman Aaron f. Mosis says yt  this manuscript is 450 years old.   Jul. 30-95 [probably 1695, judging from the writing].

    The Librarian, Mr J. H. Hart, has kindly furnished me with some notes to the following effect:

      The script is a French hand.

      The date is fixed by a note on f. 98a  (96) which reads : " I completed this book on the day before the new year at the end of the year of the fifth thousand" = 1238.

      On 99a  at the foot is a note acknowledging the sale to R. Nathaniel ben R. Jacob of the Commentary on the Prophets and Hagiographa : the sale is of the owner's free will, without compulsion, and is made absolutely : the buyer is empowered to re-sell the book or dispose of it by gift in any way he pleases.  The signature to this note is cut by the binder: it is probably Samuel b. Isaac.                                                                                                                                     

      The manuscript contains many of the lo'azim  or French glosses which are characteristic of Rashi, but are often omitted in the MSS.

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. 44-45.