SOME HEBREW BIBLES IN THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY: THE KENNICOTT COLLECTION

Benjamin Kennicott (1718-83), important Hebraist and librarian at the Bodleian Library, gathered a number of Hebrew Bible manuscripts, kept nowadays in the same library. It is a collection of nine Bibles, six of them of Sephardic origin, two Ashkenazi and one Italian. Until now, the only catalogue of those manuscripts is Neubauer's catalogue of 1886, which obviously does not include codicological aspects. The present work presents an analysis of the collection and its significance for the study of the text of the Hebrew Bible, focusing on the main characteristics of Sephardic codices: a codicological description is offered, as well as the textual aspects of the manuscripts. Special attention is given to the significance of the Kennicott collection.