“Minhat Kenaot” (A Jealous offering)
“Minhat Kenaot” (A Jealous offering)
MS.000904
Manuscript
June 27, 1458
Mantua (Italy)
Hebrew
Manuscript on Paper
9.25 × 6.5 × 1 in. (23.5 × 16.5 × 3 cm)
On View in The History of the Bible, Translating the Bible
This example of Minhat Kenaot (A Jealous Offering) is one of five surviving manuscripts that contains a collection of letters in response to the controversial philosophical writings of Maimonides. These letters were compiled by Rabbi Abba Mari ben Moses Astruc, who fiercely disagreed with Maimonides’s rational approach and sought to ban the study of science and metaphysics before the age of twenty-five.
Formerly part of Sir Moses Montefiore’s collection, this codex contains an interesting binding mistake, wherein folios 151–160 were bound upside down more than a century ago. It displays a beautiful semi-cursive Hebrew in an Italian style, and, of the five surviving examples, this is the only manuscript of Minhat Kenaot with a dated colophon.
Copied and signed in 1458 by the scribe Mordecai ben Avigdor, Mantua, Italy.[1] Acquired before 1890 by Solomon Joachim Halberstam;[2] Purchased between 1891 and 1896 by Judith Lady Montefiore College, Ramsgate, England (later the Montefiore Endowment Committee);[3] Purchased at auction in 2004 by unknown owner.[4] Acquired before 2019 by Les Enluminures; Privately purchased in 2019 by Green Collection, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Donated in 2021 to The Signatry, Overland Park, Kansas, under the curatorial care of Museum of the Bible, Washington, DC.
Notes: [1] Indicated by the colophon as well as the inscription by the scribe. The watermarks of Ferrara and Mantua also confirm the location and date. [2] This manuscript was included in Solomon Joachim Halberstam’s catalog, the catalog number (no. 194) was stamped on the spine and written on the second flyleaf. [3] The purchase was completed by Rabbi Moses Gaster, principal of the college. The manuscript also contains the stamp of the college on the front pastedown. This was one of 412 manuscripts that were purchased by the college from the Halberstam Collection. Between 1898 and 2001, this manuscript was placed on permanent loan at Jew’s College in London, England. Upon the manuscript’s return in 2001, Judith Lady Montefiore College was closed, and the manuscript returned to the Montefiore Endowment Committee. [4] Sotheby’s, New York, Important Manuscripts from the Montefiore Endowment, October 27 & 28, 2004, Lot 228.
Published References
Hartwig Hirschfeld, Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts of the Montefiore Library (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1904), 87 (MS 271).
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