Bible - National Library of Israel

This manuscript Hebrew Bible with full vocalization, accentuation, and Masorah annotation was created in Spain in around 1300. The Bible is illustrated and decorated in color, silver, and gold. The books of the Bible are arranged in the conventional order later adopted in Hebrew printed editions, with the exception that Ecclesiastes precedes Lamentations. Written on parchment in Sephardi square script, the manuscript has three columns per page, with 35 lines per column. The Masorah Magna notes are written in micrography. Masorah refers to the collection of critical notes, compiled in the 7th–10th centuries by Jewish scribes and scholars known as the Masoretes, and accepted as the authoritative regulator of the written and vocalized transmission of the Hebrew Bible, especially in matters of spelling, vocalization and accentuation. The Masora Magna refers to the relatively long notes on the upper and lower margins of a Bible manuscript, as distinguished from the notes surrounding the first letter of each book (the Initial Masorah) and on the side margins or between columns (the Masorah Parva). The Jewish National and University Library (what later became the National Library of Israel) received the manuscript as a gift in 1969. (World Digital Library)