Summer School - Hebrew Palaeography and Codicology, 7 - 15 September 2017, Germany

Topic:

In recent years the interest in Medieval Hebrew codicology and palaeography has grown among scholars and students of texts who use manuscripts written in the Hebrew script. Users of manu‐ scripts in all scripts are now increasingly becoming aware of the importance of the materiality of the text to textual criticism and editing as well as historical and cultural research and the need to acquire a basic knowledge of codicological aspects and its typological practices.

Due to historical circumstances, Jewish communities were scattered around the Mediterranean basin and further eastward, westward and northward. Hebrew manuscripts were produced from Yemen and the Maghreb in the south, to central, northern and eastern Europe in the north, from central Asia in the east to England in the west; embraced by the book civilizations of Islam and Christianity – the Oriental and Western Islamic territories and their Arabic script and booklore, the Byzantine East and its Greek script, the Latin West, and other Oriental minor languages and scripts.

Consequently, dealing with Hebrew manuscripts and Hebrew codicology and palaeography inevitably involves manuscripts produced in both Orient and Occident, and their codicological and palaeographical typology is bound to relate to those of the major host zones. Bridged by shared script, culture, literature and some scribal traditions, they are separated by the different environments which affected their scribal practices. The summer school is organised in collaboration with the Hamburg State and University Library, which will allow access to original manuscripts in situ for the teaching sessions.

The School will include lessons and exercises on diverse typologies of codices and scripts, on illuminated manu‐ scripts and on Hebrew manuscripts as historical sources; it will offer an introduction to the collec‐ tions of Hebrew manuscripts in Germany and to the Hamburg Collection which consists of more than 550 manuscripts. The laboratory at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures will show its material‐science methods and technical procedures to reconstruct the history of manuscripts, their support and used inks, and to recover lost writing. Jewish Studies and neighbouring fields like Arabic, Ethiopian, Greek or Turkish Studies will present their research on manuscripts at CSMC.

The lessons and lectures will be accompanied by a culture program including visits to the famous Jewish Cemetery in Hamburg‐Altona, Museum Collections and other institutions and sights relevant for Hamburg Jewish history.