A study and analysis of two vocabularies in aljamia included in the 15th century manuscript 8º 85 of the National Library of Israel. This manuscript is a miscellaneous compilation of various medical works by several authors and written by different scribes. Special emphasis is placed on the study of the words of this manuscript which we call Trilingual Glossary, containing tables of concordances of pharmacological and medical products with terms in aljamia from three languages: Arabic, Romance (Catalan) and Latin. The analysis of these words constitutes an important source in several fronts: the study of the medieval Hebrew language and the semantic evolution of the scientific and technical lexicon; the diachrony of the vernacular languages of the Jews of the Crown of Aragon; the scientific lexicon in Romance (Catalan) used in this text, and the Judeo-Arabic scientific and technical lexicon; the history of health sciences in medieval times in Catalan-Aragonese territory; and the transmission of these sciences through translations between the various Semitic languages (Arabic and Hebrew), Classical languages (Latin and Greek) and Romance languages of this cultural sphere.

We first study the editions, translations, and commentaries of the Bible published during the 16th century, both from the original languages into Latin and the revised Vulgate editions in both the Catholic and Protestant scopes. We focus on the Bible commentaries by the French Hebraist, not a translator, Francisco Vatablo, a Catholic and professor of Hebrew at the Royal College of France for a decade and a half (1530-1547). These commentaries take into account the original Hebrew language as well as the commentaries of medieval Hebrew exegetes. Edited and adapted by R. Stephano (first Catholic and later Protestant) they appear in the three editions (1545, 1567-57, and 1584, Salamanca) of the so-called Vatablo Bible, central to the academic work of our three Salamancan Hebraists (Grajal, Cantalapiedra, and Fray Luis de León) and in their inquisitorial process.

This paper presents an overview of a few years of work on the automatic classification of types and modes for medieval Hebrew script performed at the VML Lab at the Ben Gurion University. We introduce here a new type of paper, a story of how a multidisciplinary team of researchers and students, some leaving in the process and some joining, worked together to solve a challenging problem, interesting as a Computer Science project, and essential for the Humanities research. Our research is pioneering, and it took years of trying and improving. This paper is addressed to a Digital Humanist interested in following the latest advancements in digital Hebrew paleography; it references more technical parts of this work. The resulting algorithms and the datasets that were produced in the process are an essential contribution to the automatic layout detection, segmentation, and, eventually, automatic transcription for Hebrew manuscripts.

We present a machine-learning approach for classifying medieval Hebrew manuscripts by two key material attributes: writing support (whether the substrate is paper or parchment) and writing implement (quill pen vs. reed calamus). Our work contributes to the emerging field of computational codicology, offering tools to aid paleographers in the large-scale analysis of digitized manuscripts. Our datasets—derived from existing digitized repositories— have been carefully annotated and balanced to capture the range of material and stylistic variation. For both classification tasks, we employ convolutional neural networks tailored to their respective challenges: identifying broad substrate textures and capturing fine-grained stroke morphology. The support classifier achieved an accuracy of 91% and demonstrated reliable performance even on visually ambiguous examples. Likewise, the implement classifier was 91.5% accurate. These findings show that computational analysis can aid and, in some cases, surpass manual paleographic methods in analyzing historical manuscripts. This work highlights the potential of computational tools to assist scholars in large-scale analysis of digitized corpora, aiding manuscript dating, provenance research, and the study of scribal practices.

Abstract In this contribution we offer an edited text with commentary and a full English translation of one Seder ʿAvodah in the Adler Collection of the Jewish Theological Seminary, ENA 2385, fol. 26–27. What is very striking about this piyyut is the way in which the poet has abridged the obligatory subjects of the ʿAvodah. There are surprising omissions in the description of the creation of the world, but there are also activities of the High Priest that receive extra emphasis. All in all, this is a Seder ʿAvodah that needs to be studied within the framework of this venerable and longstanding genre within medieval Hebrew hymnology.

Thus spake Immanuel, the son of Rabbi Shlomo, blessed be the memory of that righteous man: … I was living in the city of Fermo, which is in the province of the Marche. And it happened one day, after the banquet of Purim, 1 when we had enjoyed a wealth of eating and wine and poultry, we sat together on broad cushions, and we carried on with the telling of our tales, and we decided that we were going to converse exclusively about poems and melitsot [rhyming prose]. And each man who had made up a poem in his own head, he would recite it; and if he had heard a poem written by someone else he would recite it; and there was a man who collected them and put them together into a book, and showed their beauty and their splendour to the signori … And the prince said: ‘And now rise up, tongue of gold and splendour, and make for yourself a name of glory, and collect the hosts of your poems into machberot. ' 2

Abstract One of the more interesting literary afterlives of Orosius’ Histories Against the Pagans emerges in an early medieval Hebrew text. Chapter 8 (ח) of the early tenth century work called Sefer Yosippon was identified by the author of its modern critical edition, David Flusser, as having drawn upon Orosius 2.7 in narrating the final days of King Cyrus. This article undertakes a source-critical examination of Sefer Yosippon 8 vis-a-vis Orosius 2.7 as well as Herodotus 1.201–15, Justin’s Epitome 1.8, and Jordanes’ Getica 10.61–62. This analysis helps to clarify how certainly and to what extent Sefer Yosippon drew upon Orosius, whether other carriers of the traditions are implicated, and how Sefer Yosippon made use of its Latin Christian source (and perhaps other sources). What this article shows is that Sefer Yosippon’s use of Orosius is characterized by considerable rewriting and authorial freedom, suggesting that the Hebrew author was very much at home in both drawing upon and amending his Latin source. This reception-historical case study not only marks an interesting moment in the transmission of Western historiography, but also constitutes a literary site of Jewish-Christian engagement as Sefer Yosippon’s Jewish author retools a story used by Orosius for Christian polemic for new Jewish historiographical purposes.

Abstract Baḥya ibn Paquda's Al-Hidāya ‘ilā Farā‘iḍ Al-Qulūb was translated from Arabic into medieval Hebrew by R. Judah Ibn Tibbon and R. Joseph Kimḥi. While Ibn Tibbon's translation has many surviving witnesses, only a fragment of Kimḥi's remains in four sources: one manuscript (MS Leipzig UBL B.H. 39) and three printed editions. A study of MS Leipzig reveals the inaccuracies in all editions of Kimḥi's translation, which were treated as an appendix to Ibn Tibbon's translation. These inaccuracies include abbreviations, word replacements, changes in verb tenses, pronouns, verbal stems, omissions, and additions. The impact of these discrepancies on the text's meaning and the study of medieval Hebrew and Kimḥi's translation method are significant. This article analyzes the codicological and philological aspects of MS Leipzig, presents a new reading of the manuscript, and discusses the central linguistic significance of the new reading compared to the printed editions and their implications for the text's meaning and linguistic nature.

Threads of Gold: Reclaiming the Textile in the Metaphors for Biblical Citations in Medieval Hebrew Literature

Hebrew is usually written without vowel points, making it challenging for some readers to decipher. This is especially true of medieval Hebrew, which can have nonstandard grammar and orthography. This paper tested four artificial intelligence (AI) tools by asking them to add vowel points to an unpublished medieval Hebrew translation of the Lord’s Prayer. The vocalization tools tested were OpenAI’s ChatGPT-3.5 and ChatGPT-4, Pellaworks’ DoItInHebrew, and Dicta’s Nakdan. ChatGPT-3.5 freely changed the text, even rewriting some phrases and adding an entire sentence. ChatGPT-3.5 also provided erroneous vowels in its rewritten Hebrew text. ChatGPT-4 did a moderately good job with only a few errors, but also modified the orthography. One of ChatGPT-4’s errors was not trivial, resulting in the invention of a word. When challenged, ChatGPT-4 corrected this confabulation by inventing another word, which it claimed was a “rare form” for which it provided a fictitious derivation. When challenged on this second made-up word, ChatGPT-4 replaced the word from the input text with a word based on an entirely different root. DoItInHebrew inserted vowels that produced a gibberish text. In contrast, Dicta’s Nakdan provided near perfect vocalization, with only one genuine error, but like ChatGPT-4 it modified the orthography. ChatGPT-3.5, ChatGPT-4, and DoItInHebrew exhibited serious “hallucinations,” of both the “factual” and the “untruthful” varieties, typical of other AIs, making them counterproductive for vocalizing historic Hebrew texts. Nakdan can be a powerful tool but still requires someone with expertise in Hebrew grammar to verify and correct the vocalization. Nakdan’s interface simplified correcting the vocalization, although it required its user to have advanced knowledge of Hebrew.

Abstract Based on its inclusion of non-Hebrew Italian loanwords and the sole surviving manuscript copy being Italian, the current consensus among scholars is that an Italian Jew authored Melekh Artus (1279), the only extant medieval Hebrew translation of Arthurian material. The following study destabilizes this consensus opinion demonstrating why these loanwords are a precarious tool when ascertaining this text’s linguistic provenance. Not only are most of the said loanwords not necessarily Italian, but, using Italian copies of the French biblical commentator Rashi, this study establishes that Jewish Italian scribes sometimes Italianized Old French loanwords they encountered in their Hebrew sources. Thus, the few loanwords that are Italianisms do not prove Italian authorship but merely that the sole surviving copy was produced by an Italian-Jewish scribe adhering to the scribal conventions of his times.

Abstract The phrase ‮ממולח טוהר‬‎ appears four times in the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, describing the firmament and the angels’ garments. John Strugnell, followed by most scholars, proposed that the phrase be understood as “purely blended.” An examination of the context in which the phrase appears in the Songs supports the possibility that its use began as a reference to the brightness of the firmament and was then extended to apply to the angels’ garments. Our review of the semantic field of the four roots common to the descriptions of the preparation of the incense, the garments, and the firmament—‮דק״ק‬‎, ‮מל״ח‬‎, ‮רק״ע‬‎, and ‮שח״ק‬‎—(a semantic field that was already recognized by the medieval Hebrew grammarians) strengthens the claim of Jean Carmignac, rejected by most scholars, that ‮ממולח‬‎ means “thin and fine.” In my opinion, the phrase ‮ממולח טוהר‬‎ is to be understood as “characterized by a thin, fine brightness.”

Abstract: Leon Modena’s Lev ha-Aryeh (seventeenth-century Italy) has long been recognized as the first Hebrew treatise on mnemonics. This article points to an earlier source: gate 90 of Isaac Arama’s ‘Akedat Yits@hak . Arama not only describes the locative memory palace developed by Roman orators and popular throughout Latin Christendom. He contends that the original memory palace was given by God to the Israelites and consists in none other than the central prayers of Jewish liturgy, the Shema and ve-ahavta . On Arama’s reading, the Shema and ve-ahavta are designed as a sort of verbal memory palace to help store and recollect all the commandments. In addition to introducing Arama’s memory device and adaptation of classical ars memorativa into Hebrew, I show how Arama’s interest in memory reflects a departure from earlier trends in medieval Hebrew philosophical literature. Surveying Hebrew philosophical literature across Spain and southern France from the thirteenth through mid-fifteenth centuries, I argue that although Jewish authors conceptualized memory as a faculty and internal sense according to the framework of Aristotelian psychology, they did not seem to be especially interested in the subject of memory as compared with their Christian peers. I conclude by hypothesizing what may have precipitated renewed Jewish interest in memory in late fifteenth-century Spain.

The liturgy of the Jews of Cochin, Kerala, is extant in several manuscripts, the oldest dating back to the end of the seventeenth century. Among the Hebrew pieces, we find two compositions in Old Spanish written in Hebrew characters, Alto dio de Abraham and Todos kiriados . Here we provide for the first time an edition of these texts (from MS. Roth 33 of the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds and MS. Or. 2242 of the Cambridge University Library). A philological analysis reveals that these two texts – a supplication paraphrasing Psalm 121 and a translation of a medieval Hebrew pizmon, Kol bĕruʾe – are orally transmitted versions of prayers belonging to the liturgy of the Hispano-Portuguese New Christians. A comparison with their European counterparts and the study of the linguistic peculiarities of these Indian versions show influences from Portuguese and Malayalam. In the context of the history of Jewish and Marrano migrations to the Malabar Coast, these texts represent an important vestige of a Judeo-Iberian heritage within Indian Jewish culture.

Abstract The Stadtarchiv in Münster, Germany holds a medieval Hebrew fragment with portions of the daily Shema Yisrael prayer. Measuring 510 mm in height, this fragment is but a quarter of a large-sized parchment sheet, which was designed to be hung on a wall. This study introduces the fragment and describes its material features and then suggests its possible function against the backdrop of talmudic discussions on biblical texts that are incorporated in prayer. In light of the halakhic position that biblical verses should not be recited from memory but only from a written text, the original sheet was intended to provide worshippers with an accessible copy of the Shema text, since many did not have personal prayerbooks.

This study explores the diverse causes behind the destruction and scarcity of medieval Hebrew manuscripts. Factors include their extensive use for study and prayer, the absence of scriptoria in the Jewish world, precarious preservation conditions, systematic destruction by the Church and Inquisition, market circuits of reused parchment codices, and the influence of Genizah legislation. The reuse of medieval Hebrew manuscripts is situated within the epochal printing press phenomenon. The Jewish experience is unique in featuring the persecution and burning of Hebrew books, exemplified by the Talmud’s burning ordered by Pope Julius III in 1553 and the Church’s policy shift under Pope Paul IV, leading to the deliberate destruction of sacred texts. This context resulted in a severe scarcity of Talmud copies, prompting rabbis to halt teachings. The study delves into the intricate interplay of historical events shaping the fate of Hebrew manuscripts.

Abstract The most remarkable feature of the Hammelburg Mahzor, a fourteenth-century German High Holiday book, is the inclusion of zoocephalic figures: humans with beastly heads. The purpose of this essay is to explore the semiotics and phenomenology of this specifically Jewish visual idiom, and to suggest that its presence lies at the intersection of language, philosophy, poetry, and history. In the Mahzor, zoocephaly signals distinction that collapses temporalities, tests the limits of alterity, and engages in a sophisticated word–image play that strives to establish visceral connections with the community of the manuscript's users. Hammelburg zoocephali invoke the fragility of the human condition by establishing reverberating relationships between themselves and other inhabitants of the Mahzor's pages: echoes of many, avatars of none. Outwardly monstrous yet emphatically human, these zoocephali prove to be particularly excellent images to think with about the place of Hebrew manuscripts in the long history of medieval visual culture.

Journal Article Michael Rand, Studies in the Medieval Hebrew Tradition of the Ḥarīrīan and Ḥarizian Maqama: "Maḥberot Eitan ha-Ezraḥi" Get access Michael Rand, Studies in the Medieval Hebrew Tradition of the Ḥarīrīan and Ḥarizian Maqama: "Maḥberot Eitan ha-Ezraḥi" (Études sur le Judaïsme Médiéval 90; Cambridge Genizah Studies 14.). Leiden. Brill 2022. Pp. xii + 240. Price: €130.00. ISBN: 978-9-0044-6212-0. Naoya Katsumata Naoya Katsumata Kyoto University katsumata.naoya.5c@kyoto-u.ac.jp Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Semitic Studies, Volume 68, Issue 2, Autumn 2023, Pages e30–e32, https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad019 Published: 31 August 2023

Abstract The conventional view of quantitative metres in medieval Hispano-Hebrew poetry confuses vowels and syllables. This is because it was syllable structure, rather than vowel typology, that produced the quantitative oppositions. Vocalic shewa was not a furtive but a regular short vowel; its syllable was light because it was not closed by a consonant. Heavy syllables were formed by closing consonants, replaceable by a long vowel, as in Arabic and other languages. Arabic metres could be used in Hebrew with no modification of their phonological basis. However, the quantitative prosody of Arabic poetry was the same as in Qurʾānic recitation, whereas its application to Hebrew contradicted the accentual prosody of the Bible. This appears to be the reason for the controversy surrounding the introduction of Arabic metrics into Hebrew poetry. Quantitative metres require only the focus on the articulatory structures to become audible. Musical durations and accents can corroborate the metre, but they can also be non-related without compromising metre perception.

George Kiraz and Sabine Schmidtke, eds. <i>Scribal Habits in Near Eastern Manuscript Traditions</i>