Provenance: 1. The Cairo Genizah?, Fustât, Egypt (-ca. 1900); 2. Antiquity dealer, Cairo (1969); 3. Dr. Anton Fackelmann Sr., Wien, Austria (1969-1986); 4. Anton Fackelmann Jr., Steyr, Austria (1986-1998)

Exhibited: Bibelmuseum, Münster, since 1986

See also MS 1640, Bible: Numbers; Samaritan Tora. Nablus or Damascus, 13th c.

Binding: Barking, Essex, 2000, red cloth gilt folding case by Aquarius.

Provenance: 1. Bernard Quaritch Ltd., Cat. 1147(1991):122.

Commentary: The great Jewish scholar, Rashi (1040-1105), wrote the most influential commentary of the whole on the Hebrew Bible, partly making use of the commentary of Nicolaus de Lyra.

See also MS 1862, Bible: Leviticus; Rabbi Tanchum Yerushalmi, quoting the Babylonian Talmud. Palestine or Iraq, 13th c.

MS in Hebrew on paper, Palestine or Iraq, 12th c., 6 ff., 17x13 cm, single column (12x9 cm), 16 lines in an oriental semi-cursive Hebrew book script.

Binding: England, 1921-1942, brown cloth.

Provenance: 1. The Cairo Genizah, Fustât, Egypt (-ca. 1896); 2. David Solomon Sassoon's Library, Hertfordshire, MS.525 (1921-1942); 3. David Solomon Sassoon's trustees (1942-1994); 4. Sotheby's 21.6.1994:4 (5th Sassoon sale).

Commentary: This is almost certainly the oldest extant MS of the great commentary on the Talmud by Isaac Ben Jacob Alfasi (1013-1103), the most important Rabbinic codifier before Maimonides, and almost contemporary with the author. Second to the caves of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the great Genizah in Cairo is the most significant and evocative source for any fragments of early Hebrew MSS. The Genizah was fully unearthed from 1896. Probably no Egyptian finds, except that of Tutankhamon in 1922, has ever excited the public imagination so much at the time of the discovery. No single source has added so much to our knowledge of early Jewish culture. For half a century these were among the oldest Hebrew MSS known.

Literature: D.S. Sassoon: Ohel Dawid, Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the Sassoon Library, London 1932, I, pp. 155-6.

Exhibited: XVI Congress of the International Organization for the study of the Old Testament. Faculty of Law Library, University of Oslo, 29 July - 7 August 1998.

See also MS 1862, Bible: Leviticus; Rabbi Tanchum Yerushalmi, quoting the Babylonian Talmud. Palestine or Iraq, 13th c.

MS in Hebrew on paper, Egypt, early 13th c., 2 ff., 19x12 cm, single column, (18x11 cm), 15 lines in a semi-cursive Hebrew book script.

Binding: England, 1902-1942, in dark red cloth.

Provenance: 1. The Cairo Genizah, Fustât, Egypt (-ca. 1896); 2. David Solomon Sassoon's Library, Hertfordshire, MS.525 (1921-1942); 3. David Solomon Sassoon's trustees (1942-1994); 4. Sotheby's 21.6.1994:4 (5th Sassoon sale).

Commentary: This is an extremely early MS of a major work of Maimonides (1135-1204), the greatest Jewish scholar and philosopher of the Middle Ages. The fact that this MS comes from the Cairo Genizah at Fustât is important, for Maimonides was head of the Fustât community from about 1177 to 1204. The Cairo Genizah is the source of a number of autograph Maimonides MSS, such as British Library MS OR. 5519B. It is thus a provenance that brings us very close indeed to the author. Second to the caves of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the great Genizah in Cairo is the most significant and evocative source for any fragments of early Hebrew MSS. The Genizah was fully unearthed from 1896. Probably no Egyptian finds, except that of Tutankhamon in 1922, has ever excited the public imagination so much at the time of the discovery. No single source has added so much to our knowledge of early Jewish culture.

Literature: D.S. Sassoon: Ohel Dawid, Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the Sassoon Library, London 1932, I, p. 158.

Exhibited: XVI Congress of the International Organization for the study of the Old Testament. Faculty of Law Library, University of Oslo, 29 July - 7 August 1998.

See also MS 705, Rabbinic code, France, late 13th c.

See also MS 2195, Concordance to the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides, Egypt, 13th c.

Context: Isaiah 6:3 is cited on MSS 1928/28, 1928/33, 2046, 2053/19, 2053/159 and 2053/172. Incantations for the same clients on MSS 1927/10, 25, 41, 42, 48, 56, 64, 2046 and 2053/09. This constitutes the third parallel text to the Hekhalot text also found in MS 1927/63.

Commentary: Text 1, Ezekiel 1:5 and 1:27, is not otherwise extant on the Dead Sea Scrolls, and is the oldest surviving witness in the original language, Hebrew or Aramaic, of the Old Testament. Text 2, Isaiah 6:3, quoting the Hebrew Bible in Aramaic is among the earliest known, only preceded by the Dead Sea Scroll, 1QIsaA, in Hebrew from ca. 100 BC. Incantation or magical bowls are also called demon traps. They were placed with the bottom up under the floors and thresholds of the houses in the Near East. The demons were then believed to be trapped inside the bowl with the magical spells written against them.

Published: To be published by Prof. Shaul Shaked.

Exhibited: University College London, Centre for Jewish studies, and the Warburg Institute: Babylonian Aramaic Magic Bowls from the Schøyen Collection, A Special exhibition on the occasion of the workshop "Officina Magica", London 15 - 17 1999.

MS in Hebrew on paper, Syria?, 13th c., 7 ff., 19x14 cm, single column, (15x10 cm), 16-17 lines in an oriental semi-cursive Hebrew script.

Binding: England, 1920-1942, in brown cloth.

Provenance: 1. The Cairo Genizah, Fustât, Egypt (-ca. 1896); 2. David Solomon Sassoon's Library, Hertfordshire, MS.223 (1920-1942); 3. David Solomon Sassoon's trustees (1942-1994); 4. Sotheby's 21.6.1994:17 (5th Sassoon sale).

Commentary: Rabbi Eleazar Kalir, the great liturgical poet, probably lived in Tiberias, ca. 6th-7th c. Second to the caves of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the great Genizah in Cairo is the most significant and evocative source for any fragments of early Hebrew MSS. The Genizah was fully unearthed from 1896. Probably no Egyptian finds, except that of Tutankhamon in 1922, has ever excited the public imagination so much at the time of the discovery. No single source has added so much to our knowledge of early Jewish culture.

Literature: D.S. Sassoon: Ohel Dawid, Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the Sassoon Library, London 1932, I, p. 272.

Exhibited: XVI Congress of the International Organization for the study of the Old Testament. Faculty of Law Library, University of Oslo, 29 July - 7 August 1998.