The Ms. Berlin Or. Qu. 9 and Small-Sized Hebrew Bibles in Jewish and Christian Medieval Contexts

Very small sized Hebrew Manuscripts are known from famous examples such as the undated manuscript Ms. Paris BNF hébr. 33 or the dated manuscript Ms. Berlin SBB Or. Qu. 9 (1233). Their existence and their format is generally understood in connection with the invention of the ‘Paris Bible’ in the 13th century and the new cultural practices implied by those books. But even if codicological features are commonly shared by contemporaneaous Hebrew and Latin medieval manuscripts, these small sized Hebrew manuscripts have been rarely systematically studied in a broader approach (including material features, textual contents and paratextual elements). Within the frame of the French ANR Project Manuscripta Biblae Hebraicae, this paper aims to ask, within each area, which kind of uses, roles, functions were endorsed by very small sized biblical manuscripts, and to such extend, how to consider the text vocalized, annotated with Masora coming from such small codicological units.