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[Aṿat nefesh].
[אות נפש].
Library at the Katz Center - Rare Book Room CAJS Rar Ms 535
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- Format:
- Book
- Manuscript
- Author/Creator:
- Crescas, Asher Bonan ben Abraham, attributed name.
- Language:
- French
- Hebrew
- Yiddish
- Subjects (All):
- Bible. Old Testament.
- Jews.
- History.
- Jewish philosophy.
- Czech Republic--Turnov.
- France--Provence.
- Ibn Ezra, Abraham ben Meïr, 1089-1164. Perush ha-Torah--Commentaries.
- Ibn Ezra, Abraham ben Meïr.
- Jewish philosophy--14th century--Texts.
- Jewish philosophy--France--Provence--To 1500.
- Bible. Old Testament--Criticism, interpretation, etc., Jewish--To 1500.
- Bible.
- Jews--Czech Republic--Turnov--15th century--History--Sources.
- Genre:
- Sources.
- Texts.
- Codices (bound manuscripts)
- Marginalia (annotations)
- Explicits (documents)
- Manuscripts, Medieval.
- Manuscripts, Reneissance.
- Manuscripts, European.
- Penn Provenance:
- Sold by Winner's Auctions (auction 131, item 54).
- Formerly owned by "H. Schreiber, 47, Lordship PK, London N.16" (pencil inscription inside front board); purchased in Jerusalem (approximately 1950) and published in a typewritten edition in 1971 (author's preface, signed יצחק צבי הסופר בן משה).
- Physical Description:
- 57 leaves : paper ; 202 x 152 (150 x 105) mm bound to 210 x 162 mm
- Place of Publication:
- [Turnov?], [1450?-1499?]
- [טורנוב?], [1450?-1499?]
- Language Note:
- Hebrew; two words in Judeo-French (f. 28r) and a partial gloss in Yiddish (f. 52r).
- Biography/History:
- Aṿat nefesh (אות נפש, 'soul's desire', derived from Deuteronomy 12:15) attributed to Asher (Bonan) Crescas by Steinschneider (Die hebraeischen Übersetzungen des Mittelalters, p. 425); 14th century Provençal Jewish philosopher, possibly a student of Jedaiah ben Abraham Bedersi, author of a commentary on Maimonides' Guide; attribution disputed by Gärtig (Hebrew Union College Annual 66 (1995): 239-57) and Visi attributes the work to "Sen Bonet de Lunel", possibly Bedersi himself (Cultures of Maimonideanism, ed. Robinson (Brill 2009), p. 122).
- Summary:
- This is an early manuscript of Aṿat nefesh, a supercommentary to Abraham ibn Ezra's commentary on the Pentateuch supplying quotations, explanations, and summaries of rational interpretations, such as Maimonides on Genesis and creation (f. 1r-14r), esoteric explanations, such as the meanings behind the wells of Isaac (f. 24v-28v); the Provençal origin of the work is known by two Judeo-French words commenting on Toledot (Genesis 27:11,אשפר' (aspre) and ליש (lis); f. 28r). This manuscript was likely copied from various Italian (or Provençal) manuscripts of the work (list of extant manuscripts in Gärtig (PHD dissertation, Hebrew Union College, 1994, p. xi) and is among the few earliest manuscripts of this text (and contains variations to other manuscript versions); contemporary summary annotations and glosses in the inner and outer margins suggest it may have been used for instruction; the beginning of a Yiddish gloss suggests the manuscript remained in Ashkenaz during the 15th and 16th centuries (f. 52r). Postscript follows the final Pentateuch supercommentary (f. 57r-v).
- Notes:
- Ms. codex.
- Title from Steinschneider (Aṿat nefesh likely a later name attributed to the work, discovered in a 16th century manuscript list (Gärtig).
- Layout: Written in 30-33 long lines; catchwords below final lines; glosses, summaries, corrections and variants in margins; various exaggerated opening words aligned into columns (such as f. 47r).
- Collation: Paper, [iii] (modern paper) + 57 + [iii] (modern paper); 1¹⁰ 2¹⁴(-1) 3¹²(-1) 4¹⁴(-1) 5¹²; 20th century foliation in pen, א-נ"ז, upper right recto; modern foliation in pencil, 1-57, lower left recto (references in this record to modern foliation only).
- Script: Written in a western Ashkenazic semicursive script of the 15th century in the hand of Joel b. Joseph Schalit; paragraph headings in an Ashkenazic calligraphic square script; different Italian semicursive hand for one and a half lines inside text (f. 12r).
- Decoration: One decorated initial (f. 47v); underlining flourishes (f. 13r); shapes around text (such as f. 24r, 44v).
- Binding: Pine boards covered in grey paper; blue vinyl spine; Ingres endpapers. Housed with fitted pine slipcase.
- Origin: Written in Bohemia, likely in Turnau (referring to Turnov in the Czech Republic, following Weingarten, Ha-maʻayan 10:2 (Tevet 1969), p. 51) by Joel b. Joseph Schalit, a Turnau scribe, during the second half of the 15th century.
- Item repaired on many folios; wear from use at margins; ink blots (such as f. 35r), fingerprint (f. 23v), erasure (f. 24r).
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rare Judaica Acquisitions Fund.
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Barney and Eleanor Frommer Memorial Fund.
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Mark S. Zucker Judaica Fund.
- Cited as:
- UPenn CAJS Rar Ms 535.
- OCLC:
- 1297839785
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