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27. Sefer Masoret ha-Masoret, with Manicule
Elijah Levita (b. 1468) was a Jewish philologist and grammarian who was born in Germany but spent much of his life in Italy. One of his most important works was the Sefer Masoret ha-Masoret. In this volume Levita offers an explanation of the biblical masorah, those signs and comments that were added to the Hebrew texts of the Bible over time. One of Levita’s remarkable observations was that the vocalization and accents in the Masoretic tradition did not go back to Moses and the revelation at Mount Sinai, as was assumed in rabbinic tradition. This edition was printed in Basel in 1539. It has a number of unique features, including the use of manicules—symbols in the shape of a pointing hand that highlight a particular portion of a text.
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27. Sefer Masoret ha-Masoret, with Manicule,
Marsh's Library Exhibits,
accessed March 28, 2024,
https://www.marshlibrary.ie/digi/items/show/551