Manuscripts | Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies

Examples of Safrut from the Penn Libraries Manuscript Collections

A Sofer is a Jewish ritual scribe, and Safrut is the ritual writing penned by a Sofer. Ritual writing follows a strict set of rules, and very small details can disqualify the item from ritual use. A misspelled word, certain misshapen letters, disorderliness, and even beginning certain columns with the wrong word can sometimes disqualify an entire scroll. Disqualified Torah scroll fragments, for example, are permitted for study purposes only, but not for ritual contexts.

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New Worlds through Renaissance Manuscripts

When Fabrizio Lelli introduced this sixteenth-century painting by Bartolomeo Veneto to the audience at a lecture this month, he read it for hints as to its subject.

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CAJS Rare Ms. 493: A Historical Record and Eyewitness Account from 18th-Century Jewish Alsace

In 2018 Penn Libraries acquired a Pinkas manuscript, a historical record that most often served as a community-owned ledger, as part of the Moldovan Family Collection of Judaica. Meant to document histories and community members...

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Making a Manuscript Sing

In her recent lecture, SIMS-Katz fellow Professor Elisabeth Hollender of Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, introduced a packed audience to the scars and stories told by one fourteenth-century German Mahzor, or prayer book for the holidays.

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CAJS Rar Ms 481: A Kabbalistic and Polemical Manuscript Fragment from 1605 Egypt, with Provenance

Featured here is CAJS Rar Ms 481, an undated Egyptian manuscript recently acquired at auction, thanks to the support of the Elis and Ruth Douer Endowed Fund for Judaica Collections.