The Sephardic Bible Bookcraft: Codicology, Layout and Contents in Two Manuscripts at the Library of The Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies

Presented by Javier del Barco, Universidad Complutense de Madrid & the 2025-2026 Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies & the Herbert D. Katz Center Distinguished Fellow in Jewish Manuscript Studies

The library of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania houses two medieval Hebrew biblical manuscripts produced in the Iberian Peninsula. Both codices display distinctive codicological features, textual contents, and layout strategies that reflect broader patterns in the production of Sephardic Hebrew Bibles. This lecture examines these manuscripts in order to contextualize their characteristics and to propose a definition of the Sephardic Hebrew Bible as a distinct and coherent book category, comparable to and yet differentiated from other European traditions of Hebrew biblical manuscript production.

Tuesday, November 4, 2025, 5:15 - 7:00 pm EST

Class of 1978 Pavilion, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, 6th floor, & Virtual