theodunkelgrun.bsky.social

The Polyglot proofs: my old and precious friends.

Detail of untrimmed pages with very uneven appearance

Stil life of untrimmed pages with proof corrections of the Polyglot bible

#rarebooks #earlymodern #bookhistory 📚📜💙

Quick reminder: apply for up to £ 9,500 for an academic event in any field pertaining to Jewish Studies

New feature: Student Members of the European Association for Jewish Studies now can apply for funding for Graduate Conference!

Check out the details in the link below.

Reckless Rites

A day to reread the remarkable Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence @princetonupress.bsky.social, by Elliott Horowitz ז״ל, my late deeply-missed friend.

press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

Turning Over the Stones of England’s Lost Jewish Past www.nytimes.com/2023/04/10/t...

He discovered them, too! I write at some length about Raphelengius's intense study and use of Saadiah's Judaeo-Arabic Tafsir in the composition of his Lexicon Arabicum (1613), the first printed Arabic-Latin lexicon, in the epilogue to my book:
pims.ca/publication/...

Thanks @petertarras.bsky.social . Certainly transliteration. But unlike transliteration from Arabic into a non-Semitic language like Latin, Raphelengius discovers that you can transliterate Arabic into cognate consonants in Hebrew. Obvious to us, philologically pioneering in late 16th c.

Hebrew as the early modern gateway drug to Arabic: Franciscus Raphelengius reading a Qur'an by noting Hebrew cognates above the line in @ubleiden.bsky.social MS. Or. 251 (eventually a model for his Arabic type), fully digitised here: digitalcollections.universiteitleiden.nl/view/item/33...

P.P. Rubens, The Circumcision of Christ (1605), Chiesa del Gesù e dei Santi Ambrogio e Andrea, Genoa.

The title echoes the splendid study, "Jewish Books in Christian Hands" (Vatican City, 2016), by Piet van Boxel, formerly keeper of Hebraica at the @bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

The Lyell Lectures 2026 The 2026 Lyell Lectures, hosted by the Bodleian Libraries and delivered by Professor Mercedes García-Arenal

"Muslim Books in Christian Hands: From Iberian Moriscos to Early Modern Europe"

Thrilled to see the announcement of the 2026 Lyell Lectures by Mercedes García-Arenal (@csic.es) at the @bodleian.ox.ac.uk later this Spring.

visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/lyell-lectur...

Genizah Fragment (Or.1080 J23): a late 12th century love letter.

Perahya is in Cairo and misses his wife, Umm Thana: “Of late my yearning has become so strong that I am not able to bear it anymore." He invites her to join him, promising she can choose her own carpets. 🤔

https://loom.ly/h2W1pMI

This is a terrific opportunity for students keen to learn how to work with Hebrew manuscripts, hands-on, with one the world’s most important collections of Judaic MSS. I took this twice, and my life has never quite been the same.

It is excellent!

Maarten Van Ginderachter schetst hoe Vlaanderen in 1850 slachtoffer was van de globalisering: “Mensen vielen dood op straat van de honger” In 1850 liet de globalisering zich voelen in Vlaanderen, een acute hongersnood met duizenden slachtoffers volgde. Maarten Van Ginderachter doorprikt elke romantiek over die periode: “De Vlaanders anno 1850 waren arm. Zeer arm. Onvoorstelbaar arm.”

Aanrader: dit boeiende vraaggesprek met Maarten Van Ginderachter, mijn collega aan de @uantwerpen.be, n.a.v. zijn boek Arm Vlaanderen (Horizon 2025) in de @standaard.be

www.standaard.be/media-en-cul...

Van harte gefeliciteerd, @janmachielsen.bsky.social !

Very cool! For corroboration, here's Beatus Rhenanus's autograph dedication to Johannes Oecolampadius of the copy Reuchlin's epistles (1514) he gave him as a gift in the year of its publication: www.digitale-sammlungen.de/view/bsb0000...
(I wrote about it here: doi.org/10.1163/9789...)

@footprints-heb.bsky.social

First London Palaeography Seminar of 2026 coming up! Eyal Poleg, no less, speaking on 'The Science of Erasures' - Tuesday 3rd February, 5:30pm Senate House and online. To learn more and to register:
ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

Jewish Treasures Jewish treasures from Bodleian Library Publishing

For a description and history of the small but magnificent Kennicott Collection in the @bodleian.ox.ac.uk, see my chapter in Rebecca Abrams's and César Merchán-Hamann's wonderful book, Jewish Treasures from Oxford Libraries (Oxford: The Bodleian Library, 2020): bodleianshop.co.uk/products/jew...

Bodleian Library MS. Kennicott 1 View high resolution digitized images of Bodleian Library MS. Kennicott 1 Hebrew Bible with David Kimhi's Sefer Mikhlol ('Kennicott Bible')

And the manuscript itself fully digitised by the @bodleian.ox.ac.uk here:
digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/8c26...

Entry in the Encyclopaedia here: referenceworks.brill.com/display/entr...

Glad to have contributed to the Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures @degruyterbrill.bsky.social a fantastic resource for #BookHistory and #JewishHistory. I wrote a little piece on the Kennicott Bible, “the most lavishly illuminated Hebrew Bible to have survived from medieval Spain” (M. Beit-Arié).

"I'm off to Antwerp tomorrow to buy that Hebrew book". I've long wondered about the letters (late 1519) in which Erasmus tells his buddy Maarten Lips he's shopping for a Hebrew book for him. And - εὕρηκα! - a Hebrew Psalter, printed in 1519, with Lips's name and Greek initials beneath the colophon.

How deeply insightful (and consoling). Thank you for sharing, @lyndseystonebri.bsky.social

⌛Only one week left! Apply for your Fellowship!

Ever dreamed of spending 1 to 3 months fully immersed in the Leiden Special Collections? Now is the time to make that happen.

Scaliger Institute offers 16 fellowship grants for 2026.
📅 Deadline: 1 February
🔗 Learn more & apply: edu.nl/3x7xg

PB the elder died in 1569. The original (1565) is in the Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels, in a treasure chest of a room filled with Bruegels. But Vienna has a lovely copy!

Still Life with Chinese Lanterns, orange Dahlias, porcelain cup, Alle De Wercken by Jacob Cats, and a box of family secrets (2026). Thanks for sharing, Liesbeth!

This gem not far behind (spotted at the Cambridge University Press Bookshop)

Color Chart

The 11th-century manuscript itself -- Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut.66.1 -- has been digitised in IIIF by the BML here: tecabml.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/coll... and is also available through the invaluable @biblissima.bsky.social