Tuesday, December 12, 2006

New manuscript online

The JNUL website has now added its first Tosefta manuscript to the collection of digitized Talmudic manuscripts. Here it is. The manuscript they digitized is Berlin Staatsbibliothek Or. fol. 1220, more popularly known as Erfurt. This is the manuscript which was used by Zuckermandel as the basis for most of his edition of the Tosefta. It is an early Ashkenazic manuscript, which reflects the kind of editorial reworking found in other Ashkenazic exemplars of earlier works (Yaakov Sussman discusses this in footnote 160 of his Tarbiz article on Sefer Yerushalmi; Adiel Schremer took issue with his contention at length here). In the wake of Ta-Shma's article on the library of 11th century Ashkenaz, this is known as "ha-arikhah ha-Ashkenazit". Another thing that makes this manuscript special is the occasional vocalization, which reflects a very basic system of nikkud. It is used sporadically, probably to mark off words about which the scribe felt some uncertainty, perhaps because he was aware of another version (see Mordekhai Mishor's articles in Leshonenu 64 and 67). You can also find the full text of this manuscript transcribed online.

3 Comments:

Blogger Menachem Mendel said...

Isn't this the mss. which Zecharias Frankel describes in his introduction to Mavo HaYerushalmi that he thought was another mss. of the Yerushalmi and he describes being a bit disappointed when he saw that it was "only" the Tosefta?

3:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes that is right.
Additionally one should note that the scan at JNUL is of a Very Poor Quality. Pitty they couldn't negotiate getting a proper scan from the Berlin Library.
For a detailed description of the Mss one can press this link http://www.biu.ac.il/JS/tannaim/ go into the Tosefta database and double click on the words Mss Erfurt. One should also note that Dr M. Glatzer claims the Mss was written much earlier than people suppose.

5:09 PM  
Blogger DafKesher said...

It is my impression, from comparing the scanned microfilm online to the facsimile printed in zukckermandell's Tosefta, that the condition of the MS itself deteriorated over time. Perhaps a new photo shoot of the MS would improve the situation somewhat, but faded letters are not due to problems with microfilm

10:38 PM  

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