Manuscripts from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea Islands: Information from Colophons of Hebrew Manuscripts from the Thirteenth-Sixteenth Centuries

Abstract

The article examines the production of books in the islands in the eastern Mediterranean basin in the thirteenth-sixteenth centuries, based on the information contained in the colophons written by the manuscript copyists at the conclusion of their work. The copyists' mention - at times - of the place of the copying teaches of the deployment of the Jewish communities in this region. Books were produced even in the small Jewish communities on these islands, and not only in the relatively large community on Crete. Twenty-nine manuscripts have survived from these locations. This material teaches of the presence of the demand by an educated Jewish population for books in diverse fields, including philosophy, Bible commentary, homiletical literature, medicine, and Kabbalah. Thanks to the efforts of these copyists, classical Jewish writings were preserved for future generations. These works will continue to provide a fertile field of research for scholars, due to their contents and to their being the subject of scholarly research as manuscripts. The colophons that were written by copyists reveal the locations where they received the original texts to be. Someone who copied a book for his personal use, in contrast, did not feel the need to supply such information. Professional copyists were paid for their services; although this is not stated explicitly in the colophons presented in the article, but in many instances we hear of this. Some copyists had to make major efforts in order to obtain the source for their copying, and at times they traveled far and wide for this purpose. The article illustrates the existence of Jewish communities in the small islands around Greece, especially in the thirteenth-sixteenth centuries. Most of the books were copied for the scribe's own use, thereby teaching of the intellectual level of the book readership. The colophons are the "identity card" of the copyist, and also contain the name of the book and details about the author. Colophons virtually disappeared after the invention of the printing press, to be replaced by title pages in printed works.