At the end of the last volume (Vol. 4) of this Hebrew Bible with
Masoretic comments (textual criticism) is the older colophon, which
states that Isaac ben Ishai Sason completed it in 1491 in Ocaña,
(Spain). At the end of the original first volume, now the second
volume (Vol. 2), another colophon states that this part was
completed in 1494 in Evora in the Kingdom of Portugal, two years
after the expulsion of the Jews from Spanish Castile. Originally
this Bible was divided into two parts, presenting an unusual,
non-canonical order of the books. In the 19th century, it was
divided into four volumes (Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4),
received a new binding and was decorated with a purple leather
cover and gold embossing. In the 18th century, this Bible was
housed in the Convent of the Discalced Carmelites of S. Paolo in
Florence; after the convent was sacked by Napoleonic forces, the
manuscript was probably in the Vatican Library, but in 1827 already
it was sold in England. Before coming to the Braginsky Collection
in Zurich, it was part of the collection of Beriah Botfield.
Place
Preferred form
Evora (Portugal)
Original form
Evora (Portugal), copied and vocalized by Isaac ben Ishai Sason
