A Three-Dimensional Approach to the Formal Study of Medieval Hebrew Bibles: The Case of MS BNF Hébreu 48-49.

Medieval Hebrew Bibles present an enormous variety in their forms reflecting not only a particular selection and organization of Biblical books and of secondary or auxiliary texts, but also a specific arrangement and layout of these contents imposed by the materiality of the manuscript, religious regulations, scribal traditions, cultural preferences, and aesthetic tastes. With some exceptions, including David Stern’s “The Hebrew Bible in Europe in the Middle Ages: A Preliminary Typology” (JSIJ 11, 2012, 1-88), the study of the form and function of the medieval Hebrew Bible is mostly unexplored territory. In this paper, I will present a three-dimensional model to approach the formal analysis of medieval Hebrew Bibles, and will apply it to the study of one particular case, MS BNF Hébreu 48-49.