The Kennicott Bible with Accompanying Commentary Volume (London, 1985: Facsimile Edition)

Limited facsimile edition — number 181/500 copies, stamped and signed by the publisher — of “the most lavishly illuminated Hebrew Bible to have survived from medieval Spain.”

The Kennicott Bible is one of the most celebrated Hebrew manuscripts ever produced: a complete Hebrew Bible written and illuminated in 1476 in La Coruña, Spain. Its clear, carefully vocalized text was copied by the accomplished scribe, vocalizer, and masorator Moses ben Jacob Ibn Zabara. The volume’s vivid decoration and narrative imagery were painted by Joseph Ibn Hayyim, a master artist drawing on the Cervera Bible as well as Jewish, Islamic, and Christian traditions. Produced over the course of about ten months, the manuscript also includes Rabbi David Kimhi’s (1160–1235) popular grammatical treatise Sefer Mikhlol. Commissioned by Isaac ben Don Solomon de Braga, who apparently took it with him into exile after the Spanish expulsion of 1492, this remarkable volume combines technical precision with visual richness, its micrographic Masorah forming geometric designs and its colorful motifs illustrating the cultural diversity of late medieval Spain.

This faithful facsimile reproduces the original manuscript (now Bodleian Library MS Kennicott 1) at full size and in eleven colors, with extensive use of gold and silver leaf. It is accompanied by a commentary volume coauthored by Bezalel Narkiss and Aliza Cohen-Mushlin, both of the Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, analyzing paleographical, codicological, and art-historical aspects of the book hailed by Cecil Roth as “one of the finest Hebrew manuscripts in existence.”

Physical Description

Facsimile volume: 460 folios (approx. 11 5/8 x 8 1/2 in.; 295 x 218 mm) (modern foliation: 1–17, 17a, 18–143, 143a, 144–151, 151a, 152–266, 266a, 267–281, 281a, 282–332, 332a, 333–412, 412a, 413–453) printed by offset lithography (in up to eleven colors) on specially milled Italian 160-gsm, neutral-pH “vegetable parchment” paper, each leaf’s opacity, feel, and thickness almost matching that of the original manuscript; 238 pages illuminated with lively colors, burnished gold, and silver leaf; twenty-four canonical book headings; forty-nine parashah headings structured with gold in different motifs featuring zoomorphic figures in many colors; twenty-seven lavishly illuminated arcaded pages framing the text of the Sefer mikhlol; nine fully illuminated carpet pages; 150 psalm headings, numbered and illuminated with gold and silver. Fine Italian morocco goatskin box-binding over specially prepared boards; interlacing geometric designs on all six sides embossed with handmade dies; facsimile edges gilt with 23-carat gold leaf; spine in seven compartments with raised bands; a few minor scratches on the inside of the box binding.

Commentary volume: 97 pages (12 1/4 x 9 3/4 in.; 310 x 250 mm) printed on mould-made, cold-pressed Magnani 160-gsm paper, plus an unbound limitation slip stamped and signed by a representative of the publisher. Bound in blind-tooled morocco, lightly scratched; spine in seven compartments with raised bands.

Facsimile and commentary volumes enclosed in a blue, velvet-lined presentation portfolio box, slightly scuffed; title stamped in blind on upper board.

Literature

Leila Avrin, “Illuminated Hebrew Manuscript Facsimiles,” Ars Orientalis 20 (1990): 189-195.

Yael Zirlin, “Review of The Kennicott Bible,” Jewish Art 12-13 (1986-1987): 355-356.

Facsimile Editions Website (https://www.facsimile-editions.com/en/kb/)

MS Oxford, Bodleian Library, Kennicott 1 (https://iiif.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/iiif/viewer/5e43568d-e01e-444c-870f-485b90b25b5c#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&r=0&xywh=-4093%2C0%2C14219%2C7385)