Book Series Bibliologia, vol. 58

Jewish Book – Christian Book

Hebrew Manuscripts in Transition between Jews and Christians in the Context of German Humanism

Ilona Steimann

  • Pages: 263 p.
  • Size:216 x 280 mm
  • Illustrations:28 b/w, 3 tables b/w., 1 maps b/w
  • Language(s):English
  • Publication Year:2020

  • € 85,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
  • ISBN: 978-2-503-59074-5
  • Paperback
  • Available


Jewish Book – Christian Book: Hebrew Manuscripts in Transition between Jews and Christians in the Context of German Humanism is intended as a contribution to the history of the production, circulation, and reception of Hebrew materials outside of a Jewish context.

Review(s)

“This book makes a true contribution to the history of the Christian Protestant interest in Jewish contemporary tradition and in its Ashkenazi counterpart. It is also highly accessible for readers who are not acquainted with Jewish Studies.” (Giuseppe Veltri, in Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme, 45/2, 2022, p. 358)

« On aura perçu qu’il s’agit selon nous d’un excellent ouvrage, dense en renseignements sur un période-charnière des études hébraïques en Allemagne, centré sur des données de première main tirées de l’ examen soigneux d’ un groupe de manuscrits jamais encore considérés en tant que série et du point de vue de relations mutuelles entretenues par leurs possesseurs, annotateurs ou copistes ; également riche d’idées générales justes regardant les motivations des hébraïsants chrétiens, les réactions juives a leurs curiosités et l’appropriation humaniste et chrétienne des textes juifs qui a résulté de leur travail ; s’appuyant enfin sur une bibliographie pertinente et a jour. » (Jean-Pierre Rothschild, dans la Revue des études juives, 181/3-4, 2022, p. 483)

BIO

Ilona Steimann (PhD 2015, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) is a research associate in the Cluster of Excellence “Understanding Written Artefacts” at the Hamburg University. She specializes in the Hebrew manuscripts and book collecting practices, with a particular focus on the circulation of Jewish books between Jews and Christians.

Summary

An intriguing development in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth-century Christian Hebraism is how and why Christian scholars came to produce their own Hebrew books. Jewish Book – Christian Book: Hebrew Manuscripts in Transition between Jews and Christians in the Context of German Humanism offers a novel examination of this phenomenon in light of nearly unknown Hebrew manuscripts produced by German Hebraists in that period. Anticipating Hebraist printed editions, the Hebraist manuscript copies of Jewish texts represent one of the earliest attempts of Christians to independently form a stock of Jewish literature, which would meet their scholarly needs and interests, and embody a unique encounter of Jewish and Christian views of the Hebrew text and book. How Hebraist copyists coped with the inherent “Jewishness” of the Hebrew texts and in what ways they transformed and adapted them both textually and materially to serve Christian audience are among the key questions discussed in this study.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

1. Jewish Books in the Christian Setting

2. Hebraist Production of Hebrew Manuscripts

3. The Hebrew Alphabet in Christian Use

4. “The Paths of the Sacred Tongue” among German Hebraists

5. Christian Conceptions of Jewish Literature

Conclusions. The Transition in Effect

Appendixes

Indexes