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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Jerusalem, Shrine of the Book

(807 words)

Author(s): Roitman, Adolfo
The Shrine of the Book was built for the purpose of housing the most complete and well preserved Dead Sea Scrolls found in Qumran caves (1947 and 1956). The building itself is emblematic, considered one of the landmarks of modern architecture, expressing metaphorically the importance the Hebrew Bible has for Jewish civilization and placing The Book at the center of national identity. ⸙The Shrine of the Book is a wing of the Israel Museum campus in Jerusalem, which was designed to house, preserve, and display the first seven most well-preserved Dead Sea Scr…
Source: Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures Online
Date: 2023-01-31

Jewish Book Art and the Art of the Jewish Book in Manuscript Culture

(13,360 words)

Author(s): Kogman-Appel, Katrin
The first section of this chapter offers a brief chronological framework of medieval Jewish book art introducing the most common forms of decoration and presenting several known professionals of the trade of book production. It is followed by a discussion of the role Jewish art played in the cultural spaces shared by medieval Jews, Christians, and Muslims. The chapter concludes with a survey of different book types and a brief discourse about how decoration and illustration functioned in the manifold uses of these books. ⸙IntroductionThroughout late antiquity and the early Midd…
Source: Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures Online
Date: 2023-01-31

Jewish Publishing Culture in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries

(10,556 words)

Author(s): Mahrer, Stefanie
It is the aim of this essay to follow the development of Jewish publishing culture in Yiddish and in Hebrew in the diaspora throughout the 19th and 20th century by focusing on the role of books and newspapers on the shaping of Jewish national, religious, and cultural identity. The history of the Jewish book, or more precisely, the history of writing, printing, and circulation of books, is a key factor when studying the history and culture of Jews. ⸙Introduction Every nation has built its cathedrals, castles and fortresses and created sculptural art. All of these have been …
Source: Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures Online
Date: 2023-01-31