Masorah and Text Criticism in the Early Modern Mediterranean: Moshe Ibn Zabara and Menahem De Lonzano

MS Zurich, Jeselsohn 5, is the first half of a Sefardi Masoretic Bible completed by Moshe Ibn Zabara in 1477, which was later heavily glossed, especially in the Pentateuch, by Menahem de Lonzano. The other half of the manuscript is preserved in MS Sassoon 1209. This study first examines Zabara’s work in the manuscript, in comparison with his other manuscripts. The main part of this study is devoted to Menahem de Lonzano: his biography and bibliography, his wide-ranging text critical work, and his detailed work on the Zabara Bible. The volume is illustrated with approximately 150 color photos, with a concentration of 32 photographs in appendix 1 of folios in MS Jeselsohn 5 with micrography. Two other appendices by specialists are devoted to the decoration program and to the palaeography and codicology of MS Jeselsohn 5; the former by Andreina Contessa, the latter by Tamar Leiter and Shlomo Zucker.