MOSES MAIMONIDES

MS 1863
MS Short Title MOSES MAIMONIDES
Text MOSES MAIMONIDES: HALAKHIC CODE, MISHNEH TORAH (REPETITION OF THE LAW), HICHOT PARA ADUMA, CH. 9-1
Description 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.
Published 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. MS 2195, Concordance to the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides, Egypt, 13th c.

Place of origin Egypt
Dates early 13c AD