Description

This catalogue, prepared in two parts between 1876 and 1878 and reissued here in one volume, analyses ninety-eight Hebrew manuscripts held at Cambridge University Library. Wonderfully discursive, lively and opinionated, it is the crowning achievement of Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy (1820-90), the first Jewish scholar appointed by Cambridge to teach Talmudic and Rabbinic literature. Assessing not only the contents of the manuscripts, the work also examines their ownership, scribal marks and marginalia, authorship and textual traditions. The first part analyses seventy-two biblical scrolls, codices and commentaries, including thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Sefardi Bibles and outstanding editions of commentaries by Abraham ibn Ezra and Rashi, along with lesser-known but significant commentators. The second part, which was never formally published, examines a further twenty-six rabbinic manuscripts, including the famous Cambridge Mishnah - one of only three complete Mishnaic manuscripts.