Manchester. The John Rylands Library, Gaster Hebrew MS 1380
- Source
- Manchester Digital Collections
- Library
- The John Rylands Library
- Shelfmark
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- Gaster Hebrew MS 1380
- Biblissima authority file
- Language
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- Judeo-Arabic
- Hebrew
- Title
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- Commentary on the Pentateuch
- Sharh ‘ala Shir ha-Shirim wa-al-Dalalah (שרח עלי שיר השירים ואלדלאלה | Commentary on Song of Songs and the Guide for the Perplexed)
- Agent
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- Preferred form
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- Zechariah ben Solomon-Rofe (14..-14..)
- Role
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- Author
- Original form
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- Zechariah ben Solomon-Rofe, active 15th century
- זכריה בן שלמה, הרופא
- Zechariah ben Solomon ha-Rofe
- Biblissima authority file
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- Preferred form
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- Moses Gaster (1856-1939)
- Role
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- Former owner
- Original form
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- Moses Gaster
- Gaster, Moses 1856-1939
- Biblissima portal
- Biblissima authority file
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- Description
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- Extent:
40 ff. (iii+40+iii) Leaf height: 265 mm, width: 194 mm. Written height: 200 mm, width: 145 mm.
Binding:
Modern black cloth binding.
Decoration:
The initial words of this manuscript are made in red or black ink and delineated with red or black ink. There are also blank initial words with a colored outlining.
Folios 1b, 3b, 5a, 7a, 8a, 9b, 11a, 12b, 19b, 28b, 34a: Initial word with black outlining colored in with light red ink.
Folios 14a, 16b, 19a, 21b, 22b, 24a, 25a, 26b, 27b, 29a, 30a, 30b, 31a, 33a, 33b: Initial words with black outlining. The letters are alternately left blank and colored in light red.
Folios 31a, 32a, 34a-38b: Text words that are written in black ink and are colored over or delineated with light red ink.
Folio 33a: Small black ink fleur de lys motif next to initial word.
Acquisition:
Acquired by The John Rylands Library from the heirs of Moses Gaster in 1954.
Layout:
Long line with 26 written lines
Collation:
Quire signature at the bottom left corner at the end of the quire and at the top right corner of the beginning of the new one: folios 10b-11a, 20b-21a, 28b-29a, 38b. Catchwords at the bottom left corner of side b of each folio, inconsistent. The catchwords on folios 22b, 25b, 28b and 32b do not match up with the words on the next page.
Script:
Yemenite square script, two hands (folio 1a-38b and 39a-40b).
Data Source(s):
Description based on Alexander Samely's unpublished draft catalogue, description of decorations by Gabrielle Sed-Rajna, revised and expanded by Stefania Silvestri, Renate Smithuis, Nienke Valk and Y. Tzvi Langermann.
Subject(s):
Midrash; Bible Commentaries; Jewish philosophy--Early works to 1800
Abstract:
Composite Yemenite manuscript containing (1) two incomplete Judeo-Arabic fragments from the same unknown philosophical commentary on the Torah or from two similar such commentaries (folios 1a-32b/33a and 39a-40b) and (2) an incomplete Judeo-Arabic commentary on Songs of Songs (folios 33a-38b). The Torah commentary contains many quotations in Hebrew. The commentary on Song of Songs is preceded by a rhymed Hebrew prologue. Although the name is not stated, the latter was written by Zechariah ben Solomon ha-Rofe, a prolific Yemenite author from the fifteenth century. Zechariah might also be the author of the Torah commentary. However, the present text is unlike the ones he is known to have written (for the genre and information about the author see Y. Tzvi Langermann, Yemenite Midrash: Philosophical Commentaries on the Torah, HarperCollins Publishers, 1996). The commentary on Song of Songs was published by Rabbi Yosef Qafih in Ḥamesh Megillot in Jerusalem in 1962 and studied by Y. Tzvi Langermann in "Saving the Soul by Knowing the Soul: A Medieval Yemeni Interpretation of Song of Songs," Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 12 (2003), 147-166. In addition to the commentary on Song of Songs, a commentary on Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed is announced but not found in the manuscript (folio 33a: שרח עלי שיר השירים ואלדלאלה). For a preliminary study relating to that as yet unpublished text see Y. Tzvi Langermann, "Sharh al-Dalala: A Commentary to Maimonides' Guide from Fourteenth Century Yemen," in Traditions of Maimonideanism, ed. Carlos Fraenkel (Leiden and Boston, 2009), pp. 155-176.
Foliation:
Modern pencil foliation in Arabic numerals at the top outer corner of side a of each folio.
Format:
Codex
Material:
Two types of paper: folios 1-38 and 39-40.
Provenance:
Paper labels on spine: top one damaged, bottom one with number 1380.
Paper label on back board reading "〚133〛 / 1380".
Front paste-down and folio ia: Number 1380 handwritten in blue crayon and pencil.
Folio iia: Number 1305 handwritten in pencil and later erased in blue crayon.
Folio 1a: Handwritten note in ink reading "M. Gaster 1380".
Folio 40b: Handwritten note in pencil reading "40 fols. M G".
Folio vib: Number 1380 handwritten in blue crayon.
Condition:
Folio 38 repaired with glassine paper.
Additions:
Marginal corrections and notes on folios 5a, 16a-b, 18a, 20a-21a, 25a-b, 31b, 33a, 35b, 38a, 39b, 40b in Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic. Some passages are marked in pencil in the margin.
Accompanying Material:
Paper fragment with subdivisions of tales attached to front paste-down.
Two typescript copies of abstracts of stories contained in the manuscript, produced by Moses Gaster in July 1923 (4 sheets at end).
- Extent:
- Rights
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- Provided by The University of Manchester. Zooming image © University of Manchester Library, All rights reserved. Images and Metadata made available for download are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). Images and Metadata made available for download are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
