Wednesday, September 21, 2005

AN IMPORTANT RENAISSANCE EDITION OF THE HEBREW BIBLE has been acquired by the library of Berkeley University:
Bancroft Library adds rare Second Biblia Rabbinica, Hebrew Bible

By Kathleen Maclay, Media Relations | 20 September 2005

BERKELEY – The University of California, Berkeley, has obtained a rare Hebrew Bible that has served as the foundation for almost all Bibles published since its own printing in the early 1500s.

Paul Hamburg, librarian for UC Berkeley's Judaica collections, said there are likely only a dozen sets left in the world of the four-volume Second Biblia Rabbinica, including half a dozen or so in private ownership.

[...]

When completed in 1525, the Second Hebrew Bible presented for the first time the complete Masorah, the extensive Jewish tradition concerning the correct Hebrew text of the Scriptures accumulated over centuries.

It also contained an introduction by ben Hayim to the Masoretic text. "That introduction remains a classic text in the history of biblical scholarship and the critical study of the Masorah," said [Berkeley Librian Paul] Hamburg.

In addition, the Second Biblia Rabbinica has the Targum Onkelos, a classic Aramaic translation of the Bible, as well as more medieval Hebrew commentaries by rabbis than the first Rabbinic Bible.

[...]

UPDATE: Bad link fixed.

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