Oxford (England), The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford: Ms. Hunt. Add. E
About the Ilan
TextGrid URI of the Editiontextgrid:40rgr
FamiliesGreat Parchment (Classical) ๐๏ธSearch for Ilanot in this Family
Surfaces of the Ilan
Recto
About the Manuscript
Identifiers and Titles
IdentifierOxford (England), The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford: Ms. Hunt. Add. E
Alternative IdentifiersOxford (England), Catalogue Neubauer: 2429
Primary Manuscript TitlesThe Great Parchment
Alternative Manuscript TitlesOxford, BL, Ms. Hunt. Add. E.
NLI ID990001629730205171
Manuscript History
Origin
CreatorJames Bonaventure Hepburn ๐๏ธSearch for Ilanot by this Creator
ContributorsJames Bonaventure Hepburn (Adapter, Calligrapher, Illuminator, Scribe)
Remembratoris, Clementis Edmondes (former owner)
Date Information 1606 or 1607
Creation PlacesParis (France)
Provenance
Provenance InformationAt the bottom left, the donor's inscription: Ex dono Clementis Edmondes Remembratoris, Civitatis London, 1607.
OwnerThe Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford (current owner)
Provenance PlacesOxford (England)
Physical Description
MaterialParchment ๐Translucent or opaque material made from calf, sheep, or goat skin which has been limed, dehaired, scraped, and dried under tension to produce a thin, strong material for writing, bookbinding, or other uses. For finer quality calf parchment, use "vellum." The terms parchment and vellum sometimes have been and still are both confused and used interchangeably. ๐๏ธSearch for Ilanot with this Material
FormRotulus ๐A roll of parchment or paper unrolled vertically for reading. ๐๏ธSearch for Ilanot with this Form
Dimensions Description108 ร 75
Languages Used
Main LanguageRabbinic Hebrew ๐https://ilanot.org/voc/languages/he-x-rabbinic ๐๏ธSearch for Ilanot with this Language
Additional LanguagesLatin ๐https://iso639-3.sil.org/code/lat ๐๏ธSearch for Ilanot with this Language
Content Description
SummaryEarly in the sixteenth century, an old copy of the โGreat Parchmentโ was acquired by the Italian humanist and philosopher Cardinal Egidio da Viterbo (1472โ1532). The text it bore was the idiosyncratic treatise on the sefirot, Iggeret sippurim (Letter of stories). This Great Parchment subsequently found its way to the library of Catherine deโ Medici (1519โ1589), the Italian noblewoman who became queen of France. Manuscripts from Catherineโs collection arrived at the royal library of Paris in 1599. It was there that the great scholar Isaac Casaubon (1559โ1614) discovered the ilan. The old Great Parchment, which by then may have celebrated its bicentennial, was in such poor condition and so difficult to read that Casaubon found it impossible to decipher. He therefore commissioned the Scottish Hebraist James Hepburn (1573โ1620) to undertake its reproduction in 1606 or early 1607. Comparison to the sketch of the Great Parchment found in Palatina Library, Cod. Parm. 2419 and to the newly discovered Great Parchment found in Uppsala University Library, O Hebr. 33:3 reveals that Hepburnโs restoration exchanged the idiosyncratic graphical framework of the original in favor of the array of the sefirot that had become iconic by his time. Particular graphical elements, e.g., the clusters of Tiferet and Malkhut and the medallions of Abraham and Ishmael adjacent to Gevurah, nevertheless betray Hepburnโs having worked from a Great Parchment very much like those in the Parma and Uppsala MSS. Hepburn was a fine artist and a learned Hebraist with a penchant for Christianity-validating syncretistic prisca theologia (ancient theology). Hepburn is referred to in the colophon added later to the parchment as โthe young brother Jacob แธคebroni, the Scot.โ This is in keeping with his self-reference on the engraving entitled Virga Aurea (Golden rod), an iconotextual feast that praises the Virgin in a kabbalistic whirlwind of seventy-two different alphabets. Hepburn prepared it with the engraver Philippe Thomassin (1562โ1622) and printed it in Rome in 1616, while serving as curator of Oriental manuscripts in the Vatican.
Further Information
Research LiteratureJ. H. Chajes, The Kabbalistic Tree (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2022), 47โ51.
Gabrielle Sed-Rajna, โUn diagramme kabbalistique de la bibliothรจque de Gilles de Viterbe,โ in Hommage ร Georges Vajda: รtudes dโhistoire et de pensรฉe juives, ed. Gรฉrard Nahon and Charles Touati (Louvain: Peeters, 1980), 363โ376.
Anthony Grafton and Joanna Weinberg, โI Have Always Loved the Holy Tongueโ: Isaac Casaubon, the Jews, and a Forgotten Chapter in Renaissance Scholarship (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011), 83โ85.
Robert Wilkinson, Orientalism, Aramaic, and Kabbalah in the Catholic Reformation: The First Printing of the Syriac New Testament (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2007), 47n63.
Adolf Neubauer, Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886).
Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library: Supplement of Addenda and Corrigenda to Vol. 1 (A. Neubauer's Catalogue) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994).
Daniel C. Matt, Lev ha-Kabbalah (Tel Aviv: Yediot Ahronoth, 2011), image on book cover.
Gabrielle Sed-Rajna, โUn diagramme kabbalistique de la bibliothรจque de Gilles de Viterbe,โ in Hommage ร Georges Vajda: รtudes dโhistoire et de pensรฉe juives, ed. Gรฉrard Nahon and Charles Touati (Louvain: Peeters, 1980), 363โ376.
Anthony Grafton and Joanna Weinberg, โI Have Always Loved the Holy Tongueโ: Isaac Casaubon, the Jews, and a Forgotten Chapter in Renaissance Scholarship (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011), 83โ85.
Robert Wilkinson, Orientalism, Aramaic, and Kabbalah in the Catholic Reformation: The First Printing of the Syriac New Testament (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2007), 47n63.
Adolf Neubauer, Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886).
Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library: Supplement of Addenda and Corrigenda to Vol. 1 (A. Neubauer's Catalogue) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994).
Daniel C. Matt, Lev ha-Kabbalah (Tel Aviv: Yediot Ahronoth, 2011), image on book cover.
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