Description: Hebrew manuscripts are our most important source of knowledge about Jewish medieval life, and anyone wishing to engage with Jewish history needs to know about the manuscripts, how to study them, and their literary genres. Colette Sirat offers a comprehensive overview of these subjects in this illustrated introduction. The book is a re-structured, extended and updated version of an earlier presentation in French. It has been translated from the author's revision of her earlier French book, and edited for an English readership, by Hebrew scholar Nicholas de Lange.
Brief description: Colette Sirat is Professor at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Department of History and Philology, and head of the Hebrew Department, Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris.
Review Quotes: "...[a] very welcome and enormously valuable study... Superb prints and illustrations make this an especially attractive volume, as well as a superb introduction...a richly rewarding read." Religious Studies Review