Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures Online

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Being an encyclopedia on book cultures rather than book contents, this work places textuality and materiality of the book in the center of its investigation. The singularity of the Jewish book can only be understood in full if it is studied in its broader cultural and intercultural context. This encyclopedia does that by focusing on the paleographic features, intended function, cultural significance, readership, acceptance, and design of particular books and genres, as well as the producer-consumer relations involved in the making and circulating of books. It covers more than 2000 years of Jewish book cultures from all corners of the earth.

The Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures Online will appear before the print edition and features full-text searchable, richly illustrated articles. The print edition will be released after all online content is complete and will include one introductory volume, dealing with the fundamental research questions in the wide field of Jewish Book History, followed by three alphabetically organized volumes, offering a classic entry-by-entry encyclopedia, with articles of greatly varying length. The online work reflects this framework and presents the introductory essays as a separate, but strongly intertwined, section.

More information Brill.com

Acrostics

(568 words)

Author(s): Hollender, Elisabeth
The acrostic is a form of embellishment used in the Bible and later in piyyut, spelling out the alphabet or the name of the author using the first letters of lines or verses. Various forms exist. ⸙Acrostic, from Greek ἄκρος (highest, topmost) and στίχος (verse), is a form of embellishment used in Hebrew texts since the Bible (all chapters of Lamentations, Psalms 25, 34, 111, 112, 119, and 145, Proverbs 31:10-31), in which verses or stanzas begin with letters that can be read as a unit. Biblical acrostics are alphabetic, sometimes …
Source: Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures Online
Date: 2023-01-31

Adler, Elkan Nathan

(1,609 words)

Author(s): Seidler-Feller, Shaul
In the span of a mere few decades, Elkan Nathan Adler (1861-1946), a successful international lawyer, scholar, and adventurous globetrotter, assembled one of the most impressive private libraries of Hebraica and Judaica manuscripts and printed books ever. Personal circumstances forced him to sell his collection in 1923 to The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where it has immeasurably enriched scholarship in numerous subfields of Jewish Studies down to the present day. ⸙The youngest son of British Chief Rabbi Nathan Marcus Adler and paternal half-…
Source: Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures Online
Date: 2023-01-31