Manchester. The John Rylands Library, Gaster Hebrew MS 1635
- Source
- Manchester Digital Collections
- Library
- The John Rylands Library
- Shelfmark
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- Gaster Hebrew MS 1635
- Biblissima authority file
- Language
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- Hebrew
- Greek
- Aramaic
- Ladino
- Title
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- Hazzaniah shel Shavu'ot (חזניה של שבוע[ו]ת | Title page)
- פיוט לשבועות (Piyyut le-Shavu'ot | Poetry for Shavu'ot)
- סדר שבת הגדול של שבועות (Seder Shabbat ha-gadol shel Shavu'ot | Prayer book for the Great Shabbat of Shavu'ot)
- Agent
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- Role
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- Scribe
- Original form
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- Shabtai ben Solomon ?Beleli
- שבתי ב׳ שלמה ביללי
- ?Beleli, Shabtai ben Shelomoh
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- Preferred form
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- Raffael Osma
- Role
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- Former owner
- Original form
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- Osma, Raffael
- Raffael Osma
- 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:
50 ff. (ii+50+i) Leaf height: 125 mm, width: 92 mm.
Binding:
Brown leather binding with blind tooling decoration on the margins, sewn on three raised cords. Blue ink flower on front and back paste-downs.
Decoration:
Front and back paste-downs: Large printed flowers with leaves and stems in light and dark blue.
Folio 1A (title page): The text is surrounded by a frame. The top and bottom of the frame consist of black and blank bands, the right and left side have a carteled line. The upper three words of the title pages are each encircled.
Folio 16a: An ink decorative band marking a passage of the text.
Folio 17a: A wavy line at the bottom of the page.
Folios 17b-18a: The Decalogue is written inside a gate shaped frame. The inside of the frame has a wavy line.
Folios 23b-24a: The margins have crude pencil doodles.
Folio 40a: In the middle of the page a small triangle made of small ink wavy lines.
Folio 46a: An ink band with cartels and dots.
Folios 46b-50a: Eight pages with the text written in a gate design, each time two identical gates are facing each other on opposite pages. There are four variations in the gates. The first one has a carteled line and dots in the pillars, and leaf-shaped motifs in the portal. The second one has leaf-shaped motifs in the pillars and a carteled line with dots in the portal. The third one has wavy lines with small circles in the pillars and circles with dots in the portal. The last one has lozenges and cartels with dots in the pillars and rectangles with dots in the portal. The gates all have the same shape and an inverted triangle on top.
Folio 50b and flyleaf iia: Some motifs that were used in the manuscript, like a carteled line and triangles, are very crudely sketched here with pencil.
Acquisition:
Acquired by The John Rylands Library from the heirs of Moses Gaster in 1954.
Layout:
Long line with between 11 and 13 written lines on folios 45a-50a. Lead pencil ruling.
Long line with 16 written lines on folios 1a-44b. Lead pencil ruling with pricking on both margins.
Collation:
Folio 1A: 1 folio; folio 1a-44b: 11II; folios 45-50: 1II (48) + 1I (50). Folios 1a-44b: Catchwords on bottom left corner of each page. One or two catchwords do not match up with the word on the next page.
Script:
Square script.The rubrics are in semi-cursive script.
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 and Nienke Valk.
Subject(s):
Judaism Liturgy Texts; Piyutim; Mishnah. Avot; Prayer Judaism; Mishnah; Talmud
Abstract:
Liturgical booklet for a hazzan (prayer leader) with prayer, liturgical poetry and other texts relating to Shavu'ot according to the rite of Corfu. Shabtai Solomon ?Beleli produced the copy consisting of two parts (possibly for himself) in 1829. The first part contains the prayers, liturgical poems and instructions in Hebrew relating to the Shabbat before or on Shavu'ot and to the second evening of the same festival. The second part contains more such texts. The liturgical poems on folios 39a-b and 45a-46a might be in Judeo-Greek (folio 39 only partially) or otherwise in Ladino. Moses Gaster thought the hymn on folio 39a to be in Hebrew and Greek and the one on folio 45a in Hebrew, Greek and Italian. The scribe spells his family name in three different ways: title page ביללי, folio 40a בלילי and folio 50a בילילי.
Foliation:
Folio 1A (title page) not foliated. Folio 1a-44b Hebrew foliation at the top outer corner of side a of each folio from 1 [א] to 44 [מד]. Folios 45a-50b modern Hebrew pencil foliation at the top outer corner of side a of each folio, from 45 [מה] to 50 [נ].
Format:
Codex
Material:
Paper
Provenance:
Folio ia: Number 1635 handwritten with blue crayon.
Folio 1Aa: Handwritten note in ink reading "1635 M. Gaster".
Folio 50a: Handwritten note in pencil reading "50 fols. MG.".
Folio iib: Handwritten note in Latin reading: "[...] Raffael Osma".
Condition:
Text block detached from binding.
- 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).
