The Aleppo Codex is the earliest known Hebrew manuscript comprising the full text of the Bible. It is also the most authoritative, accurate, and sacred source document, both for the biblical text and for its vocalization, cantillation and Masorah.
Click on a verse to activate theResources Panel. Scroll down and selectManuscripts. This will display theEXACTpage of the Leningrad Codex as a high resolution, colour pdf.
The Leningrad Codex (or Codex Leningradensis) is one of the oldest manuscripts of the complete Tanach produced according to the Tiberian mesorah. It is dated from the year 1008 according to its colophon. The manuscript is kept in the National Library of Russia in Sankt Petersburg labeled Firkovich B 19 A. This is a fascimile edition of the manuscript.
The Berlin Codex (Berlin Library ms. 680), also known as the New York Codex (JTS Library ms. 510) is an ancient manuscript of the Tanach (Ketuvim) from the school of Ben Asher. This is a fascimile edition of the manuscript.
Note the Babylonian pointing (in red) compared the Tiberian pointing (in blue). The Babylonian pointing puts the vowels on top. For more information on the two systems seeBabylonianandTiberianon Wikipedia.
Here is a chart of the Babylonian vocalization fromWikipedia.
The Cairo Codex (or Codex Cairensis) is believed to be the oldest extant Hebrew manuscript containing the complete text of the Neviim written by the school of Ben Asher. It is dated from the year 895 CE according to its colophon. The manuscript is kept in the Karaite Synagogue in Cairo, Egypt. This is a fascimile edition of the manuscript.
Codex Hillely is a manuscript of the Torah from the year 1241, from Toledo, Spain. It is kept in the JTS library in New York. This is a fascimile edition of the manuscript.
Lisbon Tanach (or Lisbon Bible 1482) is an illuminated manuscript (British Library #2626) of the complete Tanach dating from the year 1482, from Portugal. This edition contains color photos of the manuscript.
The only have a few images but they are great images displaying the beauty if this codex.
Description on the website:
The Lisbon Bible is the most accomplished dated codex (a manuscript in book form rather than a scroll) of the Portuguese school of medieval Hebrew illumination. Its three volumes comprise all 24 books of the Hebrew Bible. Volume One contains the Torah, or the Five Books of Moses, also known as the Pentateuch. The second and third volumes contain the Prophets and the Hagiographa (Holy Writings) respectively. Added to the manuscript are lists of the Commandments in the Torah, as well as masoretic material, which give information on the correct spelling, reading and pronunciation of the biblical text.
Samuel ben Samuel Ibn Musa, known as Samuel the Scribe, copied the biblical text in an elegant square script for the manuscript's patron Yosef ben Yehudah al-Hakim. The sumptuous decorations were created by a team of skilled artists. Completed in 1482, the Lisbon Bible is a testimony to the rich cultural life the Portuguese Jews experienced prior to the expulsion and forced conversions of 1496.
The British Museum (now the British Library) bought the manuscript in 1882. The present binding was crafted in 1954 and replaced the 16th-century leather covers.
Pentateuch. Eretz Israel. 10th century. ms. Heb 5702
Pentateuch with Vocalization, Accents, Masorah Magna and Masorah Parva.
Manuscript. Eretz Israel, 10th century. Parchment. 270 folios. 432x385 mm. Three columns. Written in a fine, large bold, Oriental square script, fully vocalized and with accents.
A very exact, beautiful manuscript, almost complete. One of a very small group of early manuscripts of the Pentateuch of very great importance for the research of the Masorah.
Purchased in 1914 by David S. Sassoon from the notables of the Jewish community in Damascus and hence nicknamed as "the Damascus Keter" (the "crown" of Damascus).
"Damascus Keter". Bible with Vocalization, Accents, Masorah Magna and Masorah Parva.
Manuscript. Burgos, Spain, 1260. Parchment. 428 folios. 305x270 mm. Sefardi square script. Three columns per page (Proverbs, Job and Psalms in two columns)
Colophon (426v): "I, Menahem, son of Abraham ibn Malek ... wrote these twenty four [books] for ... Isaac, son of ... Abraham ... Haddad, and completed them on Monday, the 17th day of the month of Adar in the year 5020 in Burgos.
At an unknown date the manuscript reached Damascus, which explains its appelation "The Damascus Keter" (it was customary in the East to call an ornate codex of the Bible a "Keter" [Crown]".
Manuscript on parchment. Saragossa, Spain, 1341. 3 volumes. 204, 206, 53 fols. 215x155 mm. Sefardi square script. 2 columns per page.
Colophon (vol. 2, 206v): "Completed ... in the month of Shevat, in the year 5101 ... in the city of Saragossa; I copied it for myself, Ezra ben Moses ... ben Eleazar...
The manuscript is richly ornamented. Most of the initial words of the books are in gold and other colors on a background of ornamental filigree outlines in purple and red. There is an ornamental red frame at the end of each book, including the number of its verses. The colophon is written in red, blue and silver within a double arched gothic frame surmounted by rosettes.
Large clear images; Oddly, Psalm 1 & 2 seem to be combined as one psalm. Psalm 3 is labeled ב
Cod. Bodmer 21
Parchment · 347 ff. · 28 x 23.5 cm · Spain (?) · 13th century
The Hebrew text of the Old Testament in CB 21 originated in Moorish Spain: Al-Andalus. Unlike most similar surviving manuscripts, it does not belong to the Ashkenazic tradition, but is instead an artifact of the Sephardic book culture of the 13th century. The ornamentation is strongly influenced by calligraphic art. (fmb)
Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 & 2 Chronicles.
The Second Rabbinic Bible is the Hebrew Masoretic text which is believed to have been used as the source text by the King James Bible translators for the Old Testament. The margins contain copious notes about the text in Hebrew. Yaakov ben Hayyim (also known as Jacob ben Hayyim ibn Adonijah or Ben Chayyim), a Masoretic scholar who became a Christian, helped compile the text and notes. The four volumes were first published by Daniel Bomberg in Venice.
