Kennicott Bible
15th-century illuminated Hebrew Bible codex / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Kennicott Bible (Galician: Biblia Kennicott or Biblia de Kennicott), also known as the First Kennicott Bible,[1] is an illuminated manuscript copy of the Hebrew Bible, copied in the city of A Coruña in 1476[2] by the calligrapher Moses ibn Zabarah [he] and illuminated by Joseph ibn Hayyim. This manuscript is considered by some, such as the historian Carlos Barros Guimeráns [es], to be the most important religious manuscript of medieval Galicia.[3] It is also regarded as one of the most exquisite illuminated manuscripts in Hebrew in an article published by the Library of the University of Santiago de Compostela,[2] and the most lavishly illuminated Sephardic manuscript of the 15th century by Katrin Kogman-Appel [de].[4]
Kennicott Bible | |
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Bodleian Library, MS. Kennicott 1 | |
Also known as | First Kennicott Bible |
Type | Codex |
Date | 24 July 1476 |
Place of origin | A Coruña |
Language(s) | Hebrew |
Scribe(s) | Moses ibn Zabarah |
Illuminated by | Joseph ibn Hayyim |
Patron | Isaac de Braga |
Material | Vellum |
Size | 30 cm × 23.5 cm |
Script | Sephardic |
Contents | Hebrew Bible, Sefer Mikhlol by David Kimhi |
Previously kept | Radcliffe Library |
Discovered | Acquired by Patrick Chalmers in Gibraltar in the 18th century |
The manuscript was lost to history for a time, and eventually was in the hands of Benjamin Kennicott, a Hebrew scholar and canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, England, who recommended that the Radcliffe Library in Oxford acquire the manuscript, which it did in 1771. It was transferred to the Bodleian Library, Oxford in 1872, where it remains, catalogued under the name of Kennicott.[5][6] Exact facsimiles have been made and are available in several libraries worldwide.
According to the Jewish historian Cecil Roth, one of the most outstanding aspects of this copy is the close collaboration it shows between the calligrapher and the illuminator, rare in this type of work.[7]