Lot description
The Shem Tov Bible Soria (Castile), 1312 A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain The magnificent Shem Tov Bible is one of the most important manuscripts of the Hebrew Scriptures to have survived from medieval Spain. Not only was it copied by a great scholar of Jewish law and mysticism, Rabbi Shem Tov ben Abraham Ibn Gaon, but it was richly illuminated, thoroughly researched, and extensively annotated. Numerous pages boast fine illustrations, delicate penwork, and elaborate, elegantly gilded archways combining Christian and Islamicate ornamental motifs—all executed by a Jewish artist. Its altered letter-forms encode profound kabbalistic secrets, while its ample margins preserve voluminous and precise details about the biblical text, many of them unattested in other sources. The level of exactitude and amount of Jewish learning invested in its production are likely unparalleled by any other medieval Jewish biblical manuscript. The Shem Tov Bible thus stands today as an extraordinary monument to the most influential and powerful Jewish civilization of the High Middle Ages.
