Notes on Contributors
Emma Abate (PhD 2006, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, and PhD 2010, EPHE Paris—SAS Modena) is researcher at the Institut de recherche et d’ histoire des textes of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in Paris. She is author of the books: Manoscritti della Genizah alla biblioteca dell’ Alliance Israélite Universelle: uno sguardo sulla magia ebraica, Officina di Studi Medievali, Palermo (in press), and La fine del Regno di Sedecia in 2Re e in Geremia, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Madrid 2008 and of the catalogue I libri ebraici della Biblioteca Angelica I. Incunaboli e cinquecentine (with S. De Gese), (Rome: Istituto italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente, 2005). Her recent projects are dedicated to the exploration of the Jewish magical and kabbalistic tradition, through the analysis of medieval and early modern manuscripts: Sigillare il mondo. Amuleti e ricette della Genizah, Officina di Studi Medievali, Palermo 2015; L’ initiation du juste: le rituel de la ‘vêture du Nom’ d’ après un manuscrit de la Genizah (2017); Filologia e Qabbalah. La collezione ebraica di Egidio da Viterbo alla biblioteca Angelica di Roma (2014). She recently edited the volume L’eredità di Salomone la magia ebraica in Italia e nel Mediterraneo (Florence: Giuntina, 2019).
Neri Y. Ariel (PhD 2019, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem). He was research member at the project “Hebrew Fragments in Austria” lead by PD Dr. Martha Keil (Vienna) at the institute for the history of the Jews in Austria and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He was scholar in residence and guest lecturer as a Minerva fellow at the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien, Heidelberg, and at the Free University Berlin, Dept. of Jewish Studies and Dept. of Islamic Studies. Among his published academic works: Discovery of a Lost Jurisprudential Genre in the Genizah Treasures, Judaica 73,2–3 (2017), 299–309; Aus Ibn Aknins פצל פי אדאב אלדיינין (faṣl fī ādāb al-dayyānīn—“Kapitel über die guten Sitten der Richter”), Judaica 74,3 (2018), 287–294; Judges’ Duties: A Reconstruction of an Anonymous Judeo-Arabic Halakhic Commentary, Ginze Qedem 9 (2013), 51–81.
Abraham David (PhD 1976, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem). Formerly was the Head Researcher of Hebrew Manuscripts at the National Library, Hebrew University. He is dealing with Jewish history in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. Among his publications are: A Hebrew Chronicle from Prague, c. 1615 (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press 1993), To Come to the Land: Immigration and Settlement in 16th-Century Eretz-Israel (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press 1999) and In Zion and Jerusalem. The Itinerary of Rabbi Moses Basola (1521–1523) (Jerusalem: C.G. Foundation 1999); Jewish Settlement in Eretz Ha-Zvi. Texts and Studies on Late Medieval Jewish History in the Land of Israel (Jerusalem: Rubin Mass, 2013); Medieval and Early Modern Jewish Societies. Central and the Near East (Mauritius: Lambert, 2019) and numerous scholarly articles.
Simcha Emanuel (PhD 1993, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) is the head of the Department of Talmud and Halacha at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and incumbent of Ludwig Jesselson Chair of Codicology and Palaeography. His main field of research is the Halakhic literature in the Middle Ages. Among his numerous books are Newly Discovered Geonic Responsa and Writings of Early Provencal Sages (Jerusalem, Cleveland: Ofeq Institute, 1995); Fragments of the Tables. Lost Books of the Tosaphists (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2006). Derasha for Passover of R. Elʿazar of Worms (Jerusalem, Mekize Nirdamim Press, 2006); Responsa of Rabbi Meʿir of Rothenburg and his Colleagues, 2 vols. (Jerusalem, World Union of Jewish Studies: The Rabbi David Moses and Amalia Rosen Foundation, 2011); Hidden Treasures From Europe, Vol. 1–2 (Jerusalem: Mekize Nirdamim, 2015–2019).
Amit Gvaryahu (PhD 2019, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) is a fellow at the Martin Buber Society of Fellows at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is a student of rabbinic literature and history. He has published in the Jewish Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Jewish Studies, the Harvard Theological Review, Tarbiz and Lešonenu. He is currently working on a monograph, based on his dissertation, on the rabbinic laws of usury, and on a translation and commentary of the Genizah Fragments of the Mekhilta to Deuteronomy.
Leor Jacobi (MA Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan) is a doctoral candidate at Bar Ilan University who has completed a doctoral thesis under the supervision of Prof Ilia Rodov and Prof Daniel Sperber. He has received several research grants and is a member of the Board of Directors in IMAGO—The Israeli Association for Visual Culture in the Middle Ages. Jacobi has published several articles, among them are: The Jewish Bookbinders of Girona, Materia Giudaica 20–21 (2015–2016), 341–348; Jewish Hawking in Medieval France: Falconry, Rabbenu Tam, and the Tosafists, Oqimta 1 (2013), 421–504; Appeals to Authority: Latin and Hebrew Drafts on a Girona Bookbinding Fragment, Materia Giudaica XX–XXI (2015–2016), 349–359; Authors, Targets and Versions of Ibn Ezra’s Iggeret ha-Shabbat; A Polemic against Calendrical Heresies, Sefarad 79:1 (2019), 123–161; and (in collaboration with Zohar Amar), From the Hunting Grounds to the Courtyard: The Crane in History and the Question of Its Kashrut Status According to the Medieval Rabbis, JSIJ 16 (2019) (in Hebrew).
Judith Kogel is Chercheur at the Institut de Recherche et d’ Histoire des Textes (CNRS) in Paris. Her main research focus is on medieval Hebrew grammars and vernacular glosses, and what they tell us about transmission of texts and the teaching of the Bible. She published on a grammatical exegesis written in Provence, Joseph Seniri, Commentary on the Former Prophets (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2013) and on fragments from Colmar: Sur les traces de la bibliothèque médiévale des Juifs de Colmar. Reconstitution à partir des fragments conservés dans les reliures d’ incunables (European Genizah: Texts and Studies, 3) (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2019). She published also several articles in scientific journals and collections.
Andreas Lehnardt (PhD 1999, Free University Berlin) is professor for Jewish Studies at Mainz University. He is head of a project on Hebrew binding fragments in Germany called ‘Genizat Germania’. He is author of Qaddish. Studien Untersuchungen zur Entstehung und Rezeption eines rabbinischen Gebetes (Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum 87) (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2002); Hebräische Einbandfragmente in Frankfurt am Main. Mittelalterliche jüdische Handschriftenreste in ihrem geschichtlichen Kontext (Frankfurter Bibliotheksschriften, 11) (Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann 2011); Die hebräischen Einbandfragmente in der Wissenschaftlichen Stadtbibliothek Trier, Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der Handschriften der Stadtbibliothek zu Trier 4 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2016); Katalog der hebräischen Einbandfragmente in der Forschungsbibliothek Gotha. Aus den Sammlungen der Herzog von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha’schen Stiftung für Kunst und Wissenschaft (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2019).
Yakov Z. Mayer (PhD 2018 Tel Aviv University) is a post-doctoral researcher in the ERC project “Jewish Translation and Cultural Transfer” in Ben Gurion University of the Negev. He has published several articles, among them: “Crying at the Florence Baptistery Entrance—A Testimony of a Travelling Jew”, Renaissance Studies 33,3 (2018), 441–457; “From Material History to Historical Context: The Vatican Ebr. 133 Manuscript of the Palestinian Talmud”, Zion 83,3 (2018), 277–233 (in Hebrew).
Judith Olszowy-Schlanger FBA (PhD 1995, Cambridge University) is professor of Hebrew Manuscript Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, PSL, Sorbonne and the President of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. She is the author of Karaite Marriage Contracts from the Cairo Geniza. Legal Traditions and Community Life in Mediaeval Egypt and Palestine (Études sur le Judaisme Médiéval 20) (Leiden: Brill 1997); Les manuscrits hébreux dans l’ Angleterre médiévale: étude historique et paléographique (Collection de la Revue des études juives, 29) (Paris-Louvain: Peeters, 2003); Hebrew and Hebrew-Latin Documents from Medieval England: a Diplomatic and Palaeographical Study, Monumenta Palaeographica Medii Aeavi, (Brepols, Tunhout, 2 volumes, 2015) and editor of: Dictionnaire hébreu-latin-française de la Bible hébraïque de l’ Abbaye de Ramsey (XIIIe S.) (Corpus christianorum: Continatio medievalis; series 4°, Lexica latina medii aevi, 4) (Turnhout: Brepols, 2008). (PhD 1995, Cambridge University) is professor at the Section des Sciences historiques et philologiques (Historical and Philological Sciences), École Pratique des Hautes Études, Sorbonne. She is author of Karaite Marriage Contracts from the Cairo Geniza. Legal Traditions and Community Life in Mediaeval Egypt and Palestine (Études sur le Judaisme Médiéval 20) (Leiden: Brill 1997); Les manuscrits hébreux dans l’ Angleterre médiévale: étude historique et paléographique (Collection de la Revue des études juives, 29) (Paris-Louvain: Peeters, 2003); editor of: Dictionnaire hébreu-latin-française de la Bible hébraïque de l’ Abbaye de Ramsey (XIIIe S.) (Corpus christianorum: Continatio medievalis; series 4°, Lexica latina medii aevi, 4) (Turnhout: Brepols, 2008).
Mauro Perani is professor of Hebrew, and Hebrew codicology and paleography at the Faculty of Preservation of Cultural Resources, University of Bologna, seat of Ravenna, and Director of the ‘Italian Genizah Project’, to which he has been associated for thirty years, in collaboration and with support of Italian and Israeli institutions. He has published many catalogues of the most important collections of the fragments found in the ‘Italian Genizah’. He is co-author with Enrica Sagradini of Talmudic and Midrashic Fragments from the “Italian Genizah”: Reunification of the Manuscripts and Catalogue (Firenze: Giuntina, 2004). He is president of the Italian Association for Jewish Studies (AISG) and editor of Materia Giudaica, the journal of the AISG. He also founded the series Corpus Epitaphiorum Hebraicorum Italiae. In 2019 he edited a volume on The Ancient Sefer Torah of Bologna. Features and History (Leiden, Boston, Brill).
Gary A. Rendsburg (PhD 1980, New York University) serves as the Blanche and Irving Laurie Professor of Jewish History at Rutgers University (U.S.A.), with academic interests spanning ancient Israel, the history of the Hebrew language, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and medieval Hebrew manuscripts. He is the author of seven books, most recently How the Bible Is Written (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2019), and the developer of three websites devoted to Hebrew manuscripts, most recently one concerning Johannes of Oppido = Obadiah the Proselyte (launched August 2018). He has served as visiting professor or visiting researcher in Oxford, Cambridge, Jerusalem, and Sydney.
Ilona Steimann (PhD 2015, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) is a research associate in the Cluster of Excellence “Understanding Written Artefacts” (Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures) at Hamburg University. She specializes in late medieval Hebrew manuscripts and book collecting practices, with a particular focus on the circulation of Jewish books between Jews and Christians. She has published in internationally renowned journals and book series, and is currently finishing a book that explores Christian production of Hebrew manuscripts. Her new project focuses on the modes of collecting, preservation, and destruction of Jewish books in medieval monasteries.
Alexander van der Haven (PhD 2009, University of Chicago); Bergen, Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion. He has published: The Other Zarathustra: Madness, Schreber and the Making of Religion in 19th century Germany (PhD diss., University of Chicago Divinity School, 2009; UMI); From Lowly Metaphor to Divine Flesh: Sarah the Ashkenazi, Sabbatai Tsevi’s Messianic Queen and the Sabbatian Movement (Menasseh ben Israel Instituut Studies 7) (Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam/Menasseh ben Israel Institute, 2012; revised and augmented Hebrew edition in Tel Aviv: Idra Academic Publishers, 2018); co-edited with Sebastian Schüler and Lutz Greisiger, Religion und Wahnsinn um 1900: Zwischen Pathologisierung und Selbstermächtigung. Religion and Madness Around 1900: Between Pathology and Self-Empowerment. Diskurs Religion: Beiträge zur Religionsgeschichte und religiösen Zeitgeschichte 14 (Baden Baden: Ergon, 2017); and a number of articles in a.o. Renaissance Quarterly, Cadernos de Estudos Sefarditas, and Zutot.
Mikołaj Wojciechowski (The Taube Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Wrocław)—was a fellow of the Institute for the History of Polish Jewry at Tel Aviv University. He participated in the Summer Hebrew Manuscript Studies: Codicology, Paleography and Art History Workshop at the University of Oxford. He is a member of the “Books within Books” project and the Grant Project: “Inventory of the Archdiocesan Archive in Gniezno: old prints from the Seminary Collection of the Cathedral Library and newly found paper documents of the Consistory of Gniezno from 15th and early 16th century”. He is currently working on Jewish Brotherhoods in Early Modern Poland. His areas of research are devoted to pinqasim from Poland, paleography and codicology of Hebrew Ashkenazi manuscripts from Medieval Ages.