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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Text and Book in Jewish Manuscript and Early Print Culture

(13,439 words)

Author(s): Stern, David
This chapter discusses the fluid and complex relationship between "text" (the verbal component of a written work) and "book" (the material form in which the text is inscribed) in Jewish literary culture from the manuscript through the age of early print. Aspects of their intersection discussed include the extra-textual symbolism of the book, scribal interventions in the text in the course of production, and the impact of page layout on the meaning and reception of the text. ⸙IntroductionThe terms “text” and “book” are often considered to be synonymous. They are not. As I…
Source: Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures Online
Date: 2023-01-31