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Harley MS 5710
- Record Id:
- 040-003948131
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-003948131
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100124337739.0x000001
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100145089304.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 5710
- Title:
-
Bible, vol. 1.
Tana"kh
תנ"ך
- Scope & Content:
-
Language: Hebrew
The first volume of the Bible with masorah magna and parva.
Fols 1r-258v
Tana"kh.
תנ"ך
Note: First of a Hebrew Bible consisting Pentateuch and Former Prophets. For the second volume, see The British Library, n.d.. Harley MS 5711 (see Margoliouth's Catalogue no. 54).
Decoration note: Initial-word panels with penwork decoration, inhabited. (Fols 1r, 34v, 63r, 83r, 110v, 137r, 155r, 172v, 215v)
Decoration note: Full border. (Fol 1r)
Decoration note: Menorah, in colours. (Fol 136r)
Decoration note: 2 unfinished foliate scrolls around initial-word panels. (Fols 86r, 90r)
Fols 1r-34v
Genesis.
Fols 34v-63r
Exodus.
Fols 63r-83r
Leviticus.
Fols 83r-110v
Numbers.
Fols 110v-135v
Deuteronomy.
Fols 135v-137r
Rules for the scribe.
Incipit: הכותב ספר תורה צריך ליזהר לכתוב בראש שיטה ובראש הדף אילו שש תיבות וסימנם ביה שמו. (Fol 135v)
Fols 137r-155r
Joshua.
Fols 155r-172v
Judges.
Fols 172v-215v
Samuel.
Fols 215v-258v
Kings.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
Hebrew Manuscripts Digitisation Project - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-003948131", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 5710: Bible, vol. 1.Tana'khתנ'ך" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-003948131 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 5710 : Bible, vol. 1.Tana"khתנ"ך - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[7884]/040-003948131
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 258 folios
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100145089304.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-

- Languages:
- Hebrew
- Scripts:
- Hebrew
- Start Date:
- 1275
- End Date:
- 1299
- Date Range:
- 1275-1299
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Parchment codex of the late 13th century.
Foliation: 258 folios (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves and 2 unfoliated parchment flyleaves at the beginning and at the end)
Format: codex. Material: parchment.
Collation: Quires of mostly 10 or 12 leaves.
Layout: Columns: 2. Ruled lines: 30. Written lines: 29. Uniform layout. Complete hard-point ruling. Masorah magna in usually three lines of the upper and five lines of the lower margin. The masoretic rubric registering the number of verses placed at the end of each book, but omitted at the end of Joshua, Judges and Samuel. In the prophetical books the beginning and the end of the haftarot frequently indicated in the margin.
Hand note: Hebrew.
Number of hands: 3.
Script: Main text in the Ashkenazi square script, punctuated. Masoretic text in Ashkenazi semi-cursive, unpunctuated. Masoretic notes in this volume provided by two hands, the second beingḤizkiyahu ha-Naḳdan (punctator). Masoretic notes in this volume provided by two hands, the second being חזקיהו הנקדן
Binding: BM in-house, 'Harleian' binding. Spine: 'Biblia Hebraica. Cum Not. Masoret. Vol. I. Brit. Mus. Harley 5710.'
Dimensions [leaf]: 390x265mm
Dimensions [written]: 220x150mm
Vellum codex; first of two uniform volumes; Ashkenazi square and semi-cursive script of Italian provenance
Initial: Folio 1r, 34v, 63r, 83r, 110v, 137r, 155r, 172v, 215v: Initial-word panels with penwork decoration, inhabited
Miniature: Folio 136r: Menorah, in colours
Border: Folio 1r: Full border
Initial: Folio 86r, 90r: 2 unfinished foliate scrolls around initial-word panels
Layout: Masorah magna occupies usually three lines of the upper and five lines of the lower margin. The masoretic rubric registering the number of verses is placed at the end of each book, but at the end of Joshua, Judges and Samuel it is omitted
Binding: Post-1600. Harleian, red-dark brown leather
Additions: In the prophetical books the beginning and the end of the haftarot are frequently indicated in the margin.
Format: Codex
Material: Parchment
- Custodial History:
-
Provenance: Clemento Renatto (censor): inscribed with his name, undated (folio 258v).
Place of origin: Italy (Rome or Bologna?).
Clemento Renatto, Italian censor: inscribed with his name, undated (folio 258v)
Edward Harley: bought by him through Nathaniel Noel (b. 1681, d. 1753), bookseller for £31 10s (price of the two volumes); inscription by Harley's librarian, Humfrey Wanley, 18 January 1723/4 (folio 1r)
- Source of Acquisition:
-
Acquisition: Edward Harley (owner): bought by him through Nathaniel Noel (bookseller) (b. 1681, d. 1753), bookseller for £31 10s (price of the two volumes); inscription by Harley's librarian, Humfrey Wanley, 18 January 1723/4 (folio 1r). The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (owner) (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (owner) (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts. Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta, née Cavendish Holles (owner) (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (owner) (b. 1715, d.1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.
Date of origin: Last quarter of the 13th century.
1753
The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts. Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta, née Cavendish Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d.1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library
- Administrative Context:
-
Provenance: Clemento Renatto (censor): inscribed with his name, undated (folio 258v).
Date of origin: Last quarter of the 13th century.
Origin: 1275-1300
Italy (Rome or Bologna?)
- Finding Aids:
-
Record history: Manuscript description based on Margoliouth, G.: Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the British Museum, London 1965.
For a more detailed catalogue entry see
George Margoliouth. Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1899-1935; vols I-III repr. 1965); IV, Introduction, Indexes, ed. by Jacob Leveen (London: British Museum, 1977), I, no. 54
Ilana Tahan. Hebrew Manuscripts : The Power of Script and Image / Ilana Tahan. London: British Library, 2007: p.30
- Publications:
-
George Margoliouth, Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1899-1935; vols I-III repr. 1965); IV, Introduction, Indexes, ed. by Jacob Leveen (London: British Museum, 1977), no. 54.
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 5710-11.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), II: 1723-1726, p. 227 n. 6.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 254, 461.
Luisa Mortara-Ottolenghi, 'SUn gruppo di manoscritti ebraici romani del sec. XIII i XIV e la loro decorazione', Studi sull'ebraismo italiano, in memoria di Cecil Roth. a cura di Elio Toaff (Roma: Barulli, 1974), pp. 139-158, esp. pp. 145 and 153.
Bezalel Narkiss, Kitvei yad ivriyim metzuyarim (Jerusalem: Keter, 1984), p. 57.
Thérèse and Mendel Metzger, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages: Illuminated Hebrew Manuscripts of the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth Centuries (New York: Alpine Fine Arts Collection, 1982), p. 304.
Mendel Metzger, 'Two Centuries (13th-14th) of Hebrew Manuscript Ilumination in Italy', in Die Juden in ihrer Mittelalterlichen Umwelt eds. by Alfred Ebenbauer and Klaus Zatloukal (Vienna: Böhnlau Verlag, 1991), pp. 131-50 (p. 132).
Luisa Mortara-Ottolenghi, 'Scribes, Patrons and Artists of Italian Illuminated Manuscripts in Hebrew' Jewish Art, 19 (1993/1994), 86-97 (pp. 87-88).
Ilana Tahan, Hebrew Manuscripts: The Power of Script and Image (London, British Library, 2007), p. 30.
BL = British Library shelfmark.
Source: Manuscript description based on Margoliouth, G.: Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the British Museum, London 1965.
Credit: The Polonsky Foundation Catalogue of Digitised Hebrew Manuscripts.
C. E. Wright, (Cyril Ernest). Fontes Harleiani : A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts Preserved in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum / Cyril Ernest Wright. London: British Museum, 1972: p.254 and 461
C. E Wright editor, and Ruth C. Wright editor. The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726. London: Bibliographical Society, 1966: p.227
Bezalel Narkiss. Kitve-yad ʿIvriyim metsuyarim / me-et Betsalʾel Narḳis ; mavo me-et Sesil Rot ; [ʿIvrit, Daliyah Shaḥaḳ ; ʿarikhah, Daliyah Ṭesler]. Mahad. ʿIvrit ḥadashah u-metuḳenet. Yerushalayim: Keter, 1984: p.57
Thérèse Metzger. Jewish Life in the Middle Ages : Illuminated Hebrew Manuscripts of the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth Centuries / Thérèse and Mendel Metzger. New York: Alpine Fine Arts Collection, 1982: p.304
Alfred Ebenbauer, Klaus Zatloukal, and Universität Wien. Geisteswissenschaft Fakultät. Die Juden in ihrer mittelalterlichen Umwelt / Alfred Ebenbauer, Klaus Zatloukal (Hgg.). Wien: Böhlau, 1991: pp.131-150
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- Credit: The Polonsky Foundation Catalogue of Digitised Hebrew Manuscripts.
- Subjects:
- Bible Old Testament