Fihrist: Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate WorldRecord origin: "Description based on the Bodleian Library's public card index of Arabic manuscripts with additional enhancements by the OCIMCO project team. Image descriptions based in part on CarboniRecord origin: S. (1988)Record origin: Il Kitab al-bulhan di Oxford."
Binding: The volume is bound in a European binding of pasteboards covered with brown leather. The covers have frames formed of two gold fillets. There are five cords on the spine, with two gold fillets either side of each cord. The pastedowns are modern and are blank except for annotations of the manuscript number and a bookplate for St John’s College and E Libris Coll. Di. Jo. Bapt. Oxon. on the back pastedown.Contents note: Annotations by John Greaves (1602-1652), Savilian Professor of Astronomy (1643-8), fols. 12a/b, 13a, 15a.Contents note: Contents described on fol. iii b: Collatio Mensium Arabicorum, Cophticorum, Græcorum, & Judaicorum. Vide pag. 1. ubi habes hunc titulum doctissimi ipsius Pocockij a later hand has crossed out the last two words, and written in pencil: Gul. Laudi manuscriptum. Nec non Tabulæ quædam Astronomicæ. Omnia imperfecta. In margine passim occurrunt Notæ Viri eruditissimi Joan. Grauij, Prof. Astronom. Sauil.Contents note: In item 1, it is evident from numbers placed on each table that there were originally 23, though tables 5–6, 14–15, and 20–1 are now missing and two tables carry the number ‘9’. Ff. 10a/b, 11a and 17b are blank except for frames formed of two black-inked lines.Dimensions: 21.3 × 13.9 (text area 17 × 10.2) cm.Hand: Both items written in a variable (small to medium) Arabic naskh using black and red inks. The text area has not been ruled, but the tables are divided into rows and columns. The texts are written in tables whose cells are delineated by red- and black-inked lines; occasionally there is writing around the perimeter of the table.Layout: The text area has not been ruled, but the tables are divided into rows and columns. The texts are written in tables whose cells are delineated by red and black inked lines; occasionally there is writing around the perimeter of the table. Lines per page vary.Origin note: "No copyist's signature or date(s) or place(s) of copying."Record origin: "Descriptions abbreviated from Emilie Savage-SmithRecord origin: A descriptive Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts at St John's CollegeRecord origin: Oxford (Oxford: Oxford University PressRecord origin: 2005)Record origin: Entries. Nos. 4 and 10Record origin: pp. 19-22Record origin: 41-2."
Calendrical work mentioning the months of January (יונאריס) and February (פבראריס) and the calends (קלנדס).Condition: torn, holes, stainedLayout: 16-21 lines
Binding: Late 18th or early 19th century English vellum with blind-tooled borders; sewn onto three supports; with shelfmark on the spine.Contents: Hebrew words with Latin and Greek translations, and biblical references.Contents note: Inscribed on pastedown of upper board: ‘Anno 1779. Ludovicus Bagot, Aedis Christi Decanus dono dedit librum hunc ab Edvardo Griffith A.B. ex aula Magdaleno, Oxon. conscriptum Edv. Griffith obiit 1753’.Dimensions: 223 x 174 x 28 mm (size of binding); ca. 216-199 x 165 mm (size of leaf)Hand: 18th century hand.Layout: Text written in two columns, from left to right; first column is in Hebrew, arranged alphabetically and the second column is in Latin, with biblical references and translations in Latin and Greek.Record origin: Description based on Kitchin, Catalogus Codicum MSS. qui in Bibliotheca Aedis Christi apud Oxonienses (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1867).
Leaf from Saʿadya’s commentary on the book of Isaiah. There is an owner’s note, written in large outline script, for Jacob he-Ḥaver b. Job. A smaller and neater colophon identifies the work and states that it was purchased by Josiah he-Ḥaver b. Aaron ‘the distinguished’ son of Josiah, Av. He bought it in the year that he was ordained into the Jerusalem Academy (בישיבה הקדושה ישיבת הצבי), the year 4791 of the Era of Creation (= 1030-1031 CE), in Acre. Later, presumably during the First Crusade, the book fell into Crusader hands and someone, holding the book upside down as if it was a Western book, wrote a short note in Latin identifying its contents: ‘[interpre]tacio esaya prophete’. During their conquest of the Holy Land, the Crusaders took not only prisoners for ransom but also Jewish books and scrolls. This leaf is presumably from one of the books that passed through Crusader hands but was eventually sold back to the Jewish community.Condition: Torn, holes, rubbedLayout: 43 lines (recto); 14 lines (verso)
The manuscript comprises a Hebrew and Aramaic dictionary, followed by a glossary that presents further etymological parallels with related Oriental languages. Its method of helping students to identify the root letters of Hebrew words, was first developed by German Orientalist, and Professor of Hebrew, at the University of Leipzig, Elias Hutter (ca. 1553-1609).Contents: A manuscript note by Samuel Rolles Driver (i). Title page (ii). Preface (iii-vii). Dictionary (1r-43v). Glossary (44r-50v).Extent: ff 52. 440 x 280 x 20 mm.Hand: 18th century English hand.Binding: 18th century half-calf over paper boards.Additional information: Rahel Fronda, Jewish Books and their Christian Readers: Christ Church Connections (Oxford: Christ Church, 2017), pp. 92-96.
Binding: "17th century calf over pasteboards; pairs of blind fillets towards outer edges of boards; pairs of blind fillets forming inner rectangle design; blind stamped corner pieces (fleurons) to inner rectangle; sewn on five supports; raised bands and blind tooling on spine; blind roll tooled decoration around board edges; evidence of chaining (staple holes towards edge of lower fore-edge); text block edges sprinkled red; spine labelled '16'."Contents: MER.119.f.17(1): ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Ibrāhīm Zanjānī, Kitāb al-tasrīf taʼlīf al-Shaykh al-Imāmi, (pp. i-120). MER.119.f.17(2): Isaac ben Joseph Karo, Zeh sefer Toldot Yitsḥaḳ : perush ʻal ha-Torah (ff. 1a-99b). MER.119.f.17(3): Midrash ha-neʿelam on Genesis (ff. 1a-58b). Responsa concerning tsitsit and Shabbat (ff. 59a-60a). Zohar on certain parashiyot, mostly from the book of Leviticus (ff. 60b-111b). Colophon (f. 111b). Zohar on parashat Pekude; Heikhalot (ff. 112a-124b).Dimensions: 266 x 200 x 59 mm (size of binding); ca. 260 x 198 mm (size of leaf).Record origin: Description provided by Rahel Fronda.
Binding: Late 18th or early 19th century English vellum; sewn onto four supports; with shelfmark on the spine.Contents: Hebrew words with Latin translations and biblical references.Contents note: Inscribed on pastedown of upper board: ‘Donum Joannis Morris, S.T.P. hujusce Aedis Canonici, & Linguae Hebraeae Prof. Reg.’.Dimensions: 340 x 213 x 107 mm (size of binding); 326 x 201 mm (size of leaf).Hand: 18th century hand.Layout: Text written in two columns, from left to right; first column is in Hebrew, arranged alphabetically and the second column is in Latin, with biblical references and translations in Latin and Greek.Record origin: Description based on Kitchin, Catalogus Codicum MSS. qui in Bibliotheca Aedis Christi apud Oxonienses (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1867).