PEOPLE OF THE BOOK

Throughout the ages, Jews referred to themselves as am hasefer — people of the book. The book in question was the Bible, highly respected and studied, but the plural “books” is more appropriate when defining Jewish culture. From the beginning, the written word was a guarantor of survival of the Jewish people’s tradition, religion, and identity. Hebrew codices containing texts by illustrious rabbis were pored over by generations studying in the synagogue. In time, these texts became of items of interest both to secular collectors searching for rare objects and researchers exploring the secrets of the past, the nature of the world, and religion.

MORE THAN A GOOD READ

Books are much more than just literary and scholarly texts: they are real objects created across centuries with the use of diverse materials by people of different cultures, and by different communities. Old books carry with them the stories of their production and binding as well as of their scribes, binders, illuminators, and owners. Notes written in the margins tell us about subsequent readers who carefully perused them.

THE HOLY TONGUE

Hebrew was the language of the Jewish elite just as Latin was the language of Christian scholars. Although not used as a vernacular language for centuries, lashon hakodesh – the holy tongue – was continually present in religious writings, scholarly texts, and poetry. As they settled in various parts of the world, Jews adopted and modified the native language of their new homeland, giving rise to Yiddish and Ladino. Hebrew, however, retained its unique status and dominance in all the Jewish communities of the diaspora. No matter where Jews were driven by fate, they brought their holy tongue with them in prayers and books.

TANAKH

The first major Jewish literary work was the Hebrew Bible, referred to as Tanakh, from the first letters of its three parts: Torah (Teaching), Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings). The Saraval Collection contains five medieval biblical manuscripts as well as one very early printed Bible. Only one of the codices contains a complete text of the Hebrew Bible. The others contain only selected canonical books (e.g., the Torah or the Five Scrolls). Three of the codices also contain an Aramaic translation, the so-called Targum Onkelos.

JEWS IN EUROPE

The intellectual center for Jews moved to Europe and North Africa as anti-Jewish repression increased under the late Roman empire. A small group of dispersed exiles was very prolific, producing numerous biblical commentaries and liturgical, exegetic, mystical, philosophical, and philological works, as well as secular travel accounts. The Iberian Peninsula was the home of secular courtly poetry. The books in the Saraval Collection reflect that flowering of thought and represent the greatest intellectual minds of that period.

THE SCROLL

Written works have been a part of Jewish life throughout history, with the forms and techniques of production constantly evolving. The earliest form is the scroll, which is still in use today. Sacred texts read in contemporary synagogues appear in the form of scrolls, consistent with ancient instructions. In late antiquity, the scroll, which was rather inconvenient to use, was replaced by the codex, a book with pages bound together. The appearance, form, and construction of Jewish books were no different than their Christian or Muslim counterparts.

PARCHMENT

Books were originally made from parchment, a specially tanned leather from a ritually pure animal (in the case of Jewish codices).. Most of the codices in the Saraval Collection were written on parchment, although there are a few paper volumes as well as books combining both materials. Sheets of parchment were folded, collated, trimmed to size, and then sewn together to form a quire. One volume was made up of numerous quires. Individual pages bore special „catchwords” to ensure that they were bound in the proper order.

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Copyists, Illuminators, Bookbinders