Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures Online

Get access Subject: Jewish Studies

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.

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Ilanot

(2,125 words)

Author(s): Abate, Emma | Chajes, J. H.
Ilanot (trees, sg. ilan) are a unique iconotextual genre, artifacts constituted by the wedding of parchment and the arboreal schema that represents the kabbalistically-construed divine world. Produced by kabbalists since the 14th century, they have been primarily used for study, performative contemplation and theurgic practices. Medieval and Renaissance ilanot visualize and introduce the sefirotic network; early modern Lurianic rolls present cosmogonic time-lines. Beginning in the 19th century, ilanot were increasingly produced to serve as apotropaic amulets. ⸙ Basic Inf…
Source: Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures Online
Date: 2023-04-01

Introduction

(977 words)

Author(s): Schrijver, Emile
Introduction to the first volume of the Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures (EJBC). The EJBC is conceived as an encyclopedia on book cultures, not on book contents, and places the book with its textuality and materiality in the center of investigation. This first volume introduces the reader to the current state of research in the field of Jewish Book History. This is the first of a total of four volumes that will make up the Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures (EJBC). The editorial board became convinced very soon in the process of preparing this major reference work th…
Source: Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures Online
Date: 2023-01-31