The article examines the production of books in the islands in the eastern Mediterranean basin in the thirteenth-sixteenth centuries, based on the information contained in the colophons written by the manuscript copyists at the conclusion of their work. The copyists' mention - at times - of the place of the copying teaches of the deployment of the Jewish communities in this region. Books were produced even in the small Jewish communities on these islands, and not only in the relatively large community on Crete. Twenty-nine manuscripts have survived from these locations. This material teaches of the presence of the demand by an educated Jewish population for books in diverse fields, including philosophy, Bible commentary, homiletical literature, medicine, and Kabbalah. Thanks to the efforts of these copyists, classical Jewish writings were preserved for future generations. These works will continue to provide a fertile field of research for scholars, due to their contents and to their being the subject of scholarly research as manuscripts. The colophons that were written by copyists reveal the locations where they received the original texts to be. Someone who copied a book for his personal use, in contrast, did not feel the need to supply such information. Professional copyists were paid for their services; although this is not stated explicitly in the colophons presented in the article, but in many instances we hear of this. Some copyists had to make major efforts in order to obtain the source for their copying, and at times they traveled far and wide for this purpose. The article illustrates the existence of Jewish communities in the small islands around Greece, especially in the thirteenth-sixteenth centuries. Most of the books were copied for the scribe's own use, thereby teaching of the intellectual level of the book readership. The colophons are the "identity card" of the copyist, and also contain the name of the book and details about the author. Colophons virtually disappeared after the invention of the printing press, to be replaced by title pages in printed works.
| Published in | International Journal of Education, Culture and Society (Volume 6, Issue 6) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ijecs.20210606.13 |
| Page(s) | 205-216 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Colophons, Copyists, Eastern Mediterranean
| [1] | Michael Riegler, ‘Colophons of Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts as Historical Sources’ (in Hebrew), PhD diss. (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1995), pp. 50-160. |
| [2] | Nehemya Allony, Studies in Medieval Philology and Literature, vol. 5: Bibliography and Book Art (in Hebrew) (Jerusalem, 1992), pp. 183-227. |
| [3] | On the Project and the database, see Malachi Beit-Arie, ‘The Codicological Data-Base of the Hebrew Paleography Project; a Tool for Localising and Dating Hebrew Medieval Manuscripts’, in D. Rowland Smith and P. S. Salinger (eds), Hebrew Studies: Papers Presented at a Colloquium on Resources for Hebraica in Europe... 12-13 September 1989, Hebrew Studies Colloquium (1991) (1993), 165-97. |
| [4] | Unlike the opinion of the French historian Jacques Le Goff: ‘They [i.e. manuscripts] were meant to enhance the collections [...] of rich individuals’ (Jacques Le Goff, Intellectuals in the Middle Ages, tr. T. L. Fagan [Cambridge, 1993], pp. 7-9, at 8). |
| [5] | See the map: Steven B. Bowman, The Jews of Byzantium 1204-1453 (Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1985), p. 173. |
| [6] | Joshua Starr, Romania: The Jewries of the Levant after the Fourth Crusade (Paris: Editions du Centre, 1949), p. 10. |
| [7] | David Jacoby, ‘Migration familiales et strategies commerciales venitiennes aux XIIe et XIIIe siecles’, Migrations et diasporas mediterraneennes (2002), pp. 335-73. |
| [8] | The Fourth International Conference of the Dahan Center, Bar-Ilan University, on societal and cultural aspects of the Jews in the Ottoman empire, 13-14 June 2001. |
| [9] | On the phenomenon of a scribe who traveled to different communities with books for the purpose of their copying and distribution (albeit in the Franco-German center), see Ephraim Kupper, ‘Concerning the Cultural Image of German Jewry and Its Rabbis in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries’ (in Hebrew), Tarbiz 42 (1973), pp. 130-32. |
| [10] | Malachi Beit-Arie, Hebrew Codicology: Tentative Typology of Technical Practice Employed in Hebrew Dated Medieval Manuscripts (Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1976), pp. 104-9. |
| [11] | Simon Marcus, ‘Historia de los Judios de Creta’, Otsar Yehudi Sefarad (Tesoro de los Judios Sefardies) 6 (1963), pp. 135-9, at 135. |
| [12] | Zvi Ankori, ‘Jews and the Jewish Community in the History of Mediaeval Crete’, Proceedings of thr Second International Congress of Cretological Studies 3 (1968), pp. 312-67. |
| [13] | Meir Benayahu, Rabbi Eliyahu Capsali of Crete (in Hebrew) (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 1983); Giacomo Corazzol, ‘On the Sources of Elijah Capsali's "Chronicle of the 'Kings' of Venice"’, Mediterranean Historical Review 27, 2 (2012), pp. 151-60. |
| [14] | Abraham David, “From Candia to Egypt during the Venetian Period in Light of Documents from the Cairo Genizah’ (in Hebrew), Italia, vol. 21 (2012), pp. 7-32. |
| [15] | Avraham Yaari, The Journey of R. Meshullam of Volterra in the Land of Israel in 241 [= 1481] (in Hebrew) (Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1949), pp. 81-2. |
| [16] | The astronomer and historian R. Abraham ben Samuel Zacuto (1452?-1515). |
| [17] | Abraham Zacuti (Zacuto), Liber Juchassin (Sefer yuhasin ha-shalem) (in Hebrew), ed. H. Filipowski (London: Hevrat Meorerei Yeshanim, 1857). |
| [18] | Elias S. Artom and Humbertus M. D. Cassuto (eds.), Statuta Judaeirum Candiae (Taqqanot Qandiya) (in Hebrew) (Jerusalem: Mekize Nirdamim, 1943). |
| [19] | Benayahu, Rabbi Eliyahu Capsali, pp. 148-53 and n. 20. On the sale of books that originated in the islands. |
| [20] | This book copyist is not mentioned in the list of Leopold Zunz, ‘Abschreiber, Punktatoren, Korrektoren, Autographen’, Zeitschrift fur hebraeische Bibliographie 18 (1915), pp. 58-64, 101-19. |
| [21] | For the Balbo family, see A. Ch. Freiman, ‘Palestine Emissaries and Pilgrims: 15th Century Documents from Candia’ (in Hebrew), Zion 1 (1936), pp. 185-7. |
| [22] | Malachi Beit-Arie and Colette Sarat, Manuscrits Medievaux en Characteres Hebraiques (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Jerusalem: Academie Nationale des Sciences et des Lettres, 1979), vol. 2, p. 43, with bibliography and a list of the manuscripts that he copied. |
| [23] | The name of the Byzantine empire in the medieval period, and especially, of the Balkan states and Thrace. Thus, e.g. Benjamin Klar, Megillat Ahimaaz: The Chronicle of Ahimaaz (in Hebrew) (Jerusalem: Tarshish, 1974), p. 51 and p. 151 n. |
| [24] | This scribe is known to us from two additional book copies that he made for himself in 1431 (Vat. ebr. 220): Sod Shem ha-Yihud and Ha-Behir (Cambridge UL Dd. 10.11). It might be possible to classify him as a professional copyist, who kept books in his possession in order to make additional copies. |
| [25] | Michael Riegler, ‘Inscriptions of Scribes in Colophons of Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts’ (in Hebrew), Jewish Studies 36 (1996), pp. 135-45. |
| [26] | Shabetai ben Jeshaiah Balbo copied MS. Paris BN. hebr. 698 (Guide of the Perplexed) in 1400, and the second Michael Balbo copied Ms. Jerusalem, Jewish National and University Library, Heb. 80 3046 in 1479. |
| [27] | This physician is not mentioned in the list of Moritz Steinschneider, ‘Juedische Aerzte’, Zeitschrift fur hebraeische Bibliographie 17 (1914), pp. 63-96, 121-67; 18 (1915), pp. 25-37. Accordingly, this colophon contributes to the identification of a Jewish physician in Candia. The book comprises 170 folio pages, including the book Tikkun Midot ha-Nefesh by Ibn Gabirol and Sod ha-Sodot (the Hebrew version of Secretum Secretorum) and Sefer ha-Tapuah (the Hebrew version of The Book of the Apple) by (or ascribed to) Aristotle (MS. London BL. Or. 2396). |
| [28] | Marcus, ‘Historia de los Judios’, p. 136. |
| [29] | Ms. Vat. ebr. 343. On R. Saul Kohen Ashkenazi, see Kupper, ‘Concerning the Cultural Image’, p. 125. |
| [30] | On the Shepherds' Crusade, see Yitzhak Baer, A History of the Jews in Christian Spain, L. Schoffman, trans. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1966), vol. 2, pp. 15-17; Bernhard Blumenkranz, ‘Pastoureaux ("Shepherds")’, Encyclopaedia Judaica 13: 175-76; Solomon ibn Verga, Shevet Yehudah, ed. Y. Baer (in Hebrew) (Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1947), p. 149. |
| [31] | David Jacoby, ‘On the Status of Jews in the Venetian Colonies in the Middle Ages’ (in Hebrew), Zion 28 (1963), pp. 57-69. |
| [32] | ‘Rhodes [...] the principal of the four hundred Jews who reside here are R. Aba, R. Chananel and R. Eliyah’ (The Itinerary of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, trans. A. Asher [London and Berlin: A. Asher, 1841 (New York: Hakesheth, n.d.)], p. 57 [Hebrew: p. 25]). |
| [33] | Yaari, Igerot Eretz Yisrael, p. 111, Letter 21 (letter from R. Obadiah to his father). |
| [34] | The Itinerary of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela: Critical Text, Translation and Commentary, ed. and trans. M. N. Adler (London: Frowde, p. 1907), 14, reads: ‘Thence it is three days' journey to the island of Chios, where there are about 400 Jews, including R. Elijah Heman and R. Shabta’ (Hebrew: p. 17, para. 25); and in the edition of Adolph Asher (Itinerary, p. 57): "Three days from thence is situated the Island of Chio [= Chios]." |
| [35] | She'eilot u-teshuvot Maharshadam (Mahraschdam) (Lemberg: P. M. Balaban, 1862), Yoreh Deah, para. 133. |
| [36] | Jacob Barnai, ‘The Origins of the Jewish Community in Izmir in the Ottoman Period’ (in Hebrew), Pe`amim 12 (1982), pp. 47-58, at p. 57. |
| [37] | Salomon A. Rosanes, Histoire des Israelites de Torquie... et de l'Orient (in Hebrew) (Sofia: Amichpat, 1937-1938), vol. 2, p. 136. |
| [38] | The copyist mentions the name of a mountain chain on the island of Chios. Jews resided in Chios since the eleventh century (Simon Marcus, ‘Chios’, Encyclopaedia Judaica 5: 475; David Jacoby, ‘The Jews in Chios under Genoese Rule’ [Hebrew], Zion 26 [1961], pp. 180-97). |
| [39] | Para. 54; Vienna 1599 (Jerusalem: Yad Harav Nissim, 1989). |
| [40] | Hermann Vogelstein and Paul Rieger, Geschichte der Juden in Rom (Berlin: Mayer & Muller, 1896), vol. 1, pp. 446-50, with bibliography and the history of the family. |
| [41] | Rosanes, Histoire, vol. 3, p. 83, writes that the former name of the island was ‘Igri buz’. The state of spiritual neglect on the island that is depicted by Samuel ben Moses Kalai, Mishpatei Shmuel: She'eilot u-Teshuvot, ed. M. Benayahu (Jerusalem: Yad Harav Nissim, 1989 [Venice 1599]), para. 54, relates to the last quarter of the sixteenth century. |
| [42] | Malachi Beit-Arie and Colette Sarat, Manuscrits Medievaux en Characteres Hebraiques (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Jerusalem: Academie Nationale des Sciences et des Lettres, 1972), vol. 1, nos. 75, 78. |
| [43] | Rosanes, Histoire, vol. 2, 136. |
| [44] | Cecil Roth, The House of Nasi: The Duke of Naxos (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1948 [1992]). Benjamin Arbel, ‘The Jews in Cyprus; New Evidence from the Venetian Period," Revue des Etudes Juives 137, 1-2 (1978), pp. 27-46; idem, ‘What Happened to Famagusta's Jews Following the Ottoman Conquest of 1571?’, Mediterranean Historical Review 27, 2 (2012), pp. 241-9. |
| [45] | Cecil Roth, ‘The Jews in Cyprus’ (in Hebrew), Sefunot: Studies and Sources on the History of the Jewish Communities in the East 8 (1964; Itzhak Ben-Zvi Memorial Volume), pp. 285-95. |
| [46] | Avraham Yaari, Masa`ot Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel Journeys) (Ramat Gan: Masada, 1976), p. 147. |
| [47] | Izhak Ben-Zevi, A Pilgrimage to Palestine: By Rabbi Moshe Bassola of Ancona (in Hebrew) (Jerusalem: Jewish Palestine Exploration Society, 1939), 2nd ed, pp. 33-4. |
| [48] | Letter from Iliyah from Pisaro, Italy, when he traveled from Venice to Famagusta, on the island of Cyprus, in 1562/3-1563/4, in: J. D. Eisenstein, A Compendium of Jewish Travels (Otzar Masa`ot) (in Hebrew) (New York: J. D. Eisenstein, 1926), pp. 169-70. |
| [49] | Rosanes, Histoire, vol. 2, p. 138. |
| [50] | Moriah 8 (86-87) (1978), pp. 2-6, at p. 3, para. 3. |
| [51] | R. Joshua ibn Shuaib (1280-1340), a Spanish rabbi known for his book of Biblical exegeses. See Israel Moses Ta-Shma, ‘Ibn Shuaib, Joshua’, Encyclopaedia Judaica 8: 1201-1202. |
| [52] | Florence Edler de Roover, ‘The Scriptorium’, in James Thompson (ed), The Medieval Library, (New York: Hafner, 1965), 594-612. |
| [53] | On copyist's wages in various Jewish expanses, see Riegler, ‘Colophons’, pp. 249-57. |
| [54] | Gries, Book in the Jewish World. |
| [55] | Zipora Baruchson, ‘Research of Hebrew Books and of the Discipline of Bibliometrics’ (in Hebrew), Yad la-Kore 24 (1989), pp. 41-52, with bibliographical references. |
| [56] | Zipora Baruchson, ‘On the Trade in Hebrew Books between Italy and the Ottoman Empire during the XVIth Century’ (in Hebrew), East and Maghreb: Researches in the History of the Jews in the Orient and North Africa 5 (1986), pp. 53-77. |
| [57] | Ouzi Elyada, ‘The “Annales” School and the Culture of the Book’ (in Hebrew), in Raya Cohen and Joseph Mali (eds), Literature and History (Jerusalem, 1999), 299-323. The article, that discusses the printed book in the sixteenth-nineteenth centuries, is also of interest for the study of book distribution in the period before the age of printing. |
| [58] | Zeev Gries, The Book in the Jewish World 1700-1900 (Oxford: Littman Library, 2007). |
| [59] | Avraham Yaari, Igerot Eretz Yisrael she-katvu Yehudim ha-yoshvin ba-Aretz... (Land of Israel Letters Written by Jews Dwelling in the Land…) (Ramat Gan: Masada, 1971), p. 108, Letter 21 (from Italy to the Land of Israel). |
| [60] | M. E. Artom and A. David [eds], From Italy to Jerusalem: The Letters of Rabbi Obadiah of Bertinoro from the Land of Israel. A Critical Edition [in Hebrew] [Ramat Gan, 1997], p. 42); Benjamin Arbel, ‘Notes on the Delmedigo of Candia’, Non solo verso Oriente 1 (2016), pp. 119-30. |
| [61] | Simon Marcus, ‘A History of the Jews in Canea’ (in Hebrew), Tarbiz 38 (1969), pp. 161-74; idem., ‘The Composition of the Jewish Community on the Island of Crete during the Time of Venetian Rule’ (in Hebrew), Sinai 60 (1966), pp. 63-76. |
| [62] | Joshua Starr, ‘Jewish Life in Crete under the Rule of Venice’, Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 12 (1942), pp. 59-111. |
| [63] | N. Rena Lauer, Colonial Justice and the Jews of Venetian Crete (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019), see introduction; idem, ‘Cretan Jews and the First Sephardic Encounter in the Fifteenth Century’, Mediterranean History Revue 27, 2 (2012), pp. 129-40. |
| [64] | David Jacoby, ‘Jews and Christians in Venetian Crete: Segregation, Interaction and Conflict’, in Uwe Israel, Robert Jütte, and Reinhold C. Mueller (eds.), "Interstizi": Culture ebraico-cristiane a Venezia e nei suoi domini dal medioevo all'età moderna, special issue, Ricerche / Centro tedesco di studi veneziani 5 (2010), pp. 243-79. |
| [65] | Martin Borysek, ‘The Jews of Venetian Candia: The Challenges of External Influences and Internal Diversity as Reflected in "Taqqanot Qandiya"’, Al-Masaq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean 26, 3 (2014), pp. 241-66. |
| [66] | Benjamin Arbel, ‘Jews and Christians in Sixteenth–Century Crete; Between Segregation and Integration’, Interstizi 5 (2010) 281-94. |
| [67] | Zvi Ankori, ‘The Living and the Dead: The Story of Hebrew Inscription in Crete’, Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 38/39 (1970-71), pp. 1-100. |
| [68] | Umberto Cassuto, Manoscritti Palatini Ebraici della Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana e la Loro Storia (Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1935). |
| [69] | Benayahu, ‘Book Commerce between Candia and Egypt’ (in Hebrew), in Z. Malachi (ed.), A. M. Habermann Memorial Volume (Lod: Habermann Institute for Literary Research, 1984), pp. 255-65. |
| [70] | Ephraim E. Urbach, ‘Critical Notes to Rashi's Commentary to the Torah Ascribed to R. Abraham b. David’ (in Hebrew), Kirjath Sepher 34 (1959), pp. 101-8, at 101 (on the identity of Michael Balbo as a book copyist). |
| [71] | Z. Malachi, ‘Commentaries to Sefer misvot gadol and Sefer misvot katan Copied by Mikhael Cohen Balbo of Candia’ (in Hebrew), Kirjath Sepher 41 (1966), pp. 392-96; for a critique of this article. |
| [72] | Malachi Beit-Arie, ‘On the MS of the Commentaries to Sefer Misvot Gadol and Sefer Misvot Katan (see K. S. xli, 392 ff.)’ (in Hebrew), Kirjath Sepher 42 (1967), p. 272. |
| [73] | Samuel Krauss, ‘Le Roi de France Charles VIII’, REJ 51 (1906), pp. 87-96. This family name is also mentioned in Artom and Cassuto, Statuta Judaeirum Candiae, Regulation 13 (p. 7: ‘Benjamin Bonifacio’). |
| [74] | Nicolas, Oikonomides, ‘The Jews of Chios (1049): A Group of "excusati"’, Mediterranean Historical Review 10, 1-2 (1995), pp. 218-25. |
| [75] | “Addenda: About R. Shemarya ha-Ikriti” (in Hebrew), He-Halutz 2 (1853), pp. 158-9; ‘Schreiben des Herrn Leopold Dukes in London an Herrn Ignaz Blumenfeld in Wien’ (in Hebrew), Otzar Nehmad 2 (1857), pp. 90-4. |
APA Style
Michael Riegler. (2021). Manuscripts from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea Islands: Information from Colophons of Hebrew Manuscripts from the Thirteenth-Sixteenth Centuries. International Journal of Education, Culture and Society, 6(6), 205-216. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20210606.13
ACS Style
Michael Riegler. Manuscripts from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea Islands: Information from Colophons of Hebrew Manuscripts from the Thirteenth-Sixteenth Centuries. Int. J. Educ. Cult. Soc. 2021, 6(6), 205-216. doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20210606.13
AMA Style
Michael Riegler. Manuscripts from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea Islands: Information from Colophons of Hebrew Manuscripts from the Thirteenth-Sixteenth Centuries. Int J Educ Cult Soc. 2021;6(6):205-216. doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20210606.13
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ijecs.20210606.13,
author = {Michael Riegler},
title = {Manuscripts from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea Islands: Information from Colophons of Hebrew Manuscripts from the Thirteenth-Sixteenth Centuries},
journal = {International Journal of Education, Culture and Society},
volume = {6},
number = {6},
pages = {205-216},
doi = {10.11648/j.ijecs.20210606.13},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20210606.13},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijecs.20210606.13},
abstract = {The article examines the production of books in the islands in the eastern Mediterranean basin in the thirteenth-sixteenth centuries, based on the information contained in the colophons written by the manuscript copyists at the conclusion of their work. The copyists' mention - at times - of the place of the copying teaches of the deployment of the Jewish communities in this region. Books were produced even in the small Jewish communities on these islands, and not only in the relatively large community on Crete. Twenty-nine manuscripts have survived from these locations. This material teaches of the presence of the demand by an educated Jewish population for books in diverse fields, including philosophy, Bible commentary, homiletical literature, medicine, and Kabbalah. Thanks to the efforts of these copyists, classical Jewish writings were preserved for future generations. These works will continue to provide a fertile field of research for scholars, due to their contents and to their being the subject of scholarly research as manuscripts. The colophons that were written by copyists reveal the locations where they received the original texts to be. Someone who copied a book for his personal use, in contrast, did not feel the need to supply such information. Professional copyists were paid for their services; although this is not stated explicitly in the colophons presented in the article, but in many instances we hear of this. Some copyists had to make major efforts in order to obtain the source for their copying, and at times they traveled far and wide for this purpose. The article illustrates the existence of Jewish communities in the small islands around Greece, especially in the thirteenth-sixteenth centuries. Most of the books were copied for the scribe's own use, thereby teaching of the intellectual level of the book readership. The colophons are the "identity card" of the copyist, and also contain the name of the book and details about the author. Colophons virtually disappeared after the invention of the printing press, to be replaced by title pages in printed works.},
year = {2021}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Manuscripts from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea Islands: Information from Colophons of Hebrew Manuscripts from the Thirteenth-Sixteenth Centuries AU - Michael Riegler Y1 - 2021/12/10 PY - 2021 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20210606.13 DO - 10.11648/j.ijecs.20210606.13 T2 - International Journal of Education, Culture and Society JF - International Journal of Education, Culture and Society JO - International Journal of Education, Culture and Society SP - 205 EP - 216 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2575-3363 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20210606.13 AB - The article examines the production of books in the islands in the eastern Mediterranean basin in the thirteenth-sixteenth centuries, based on the information contained in the colophons written by the manuscript copyists at the conclusion of their work. The copyists' mention - at times - of the place of the copying teaches of the deployment of the Jewish communities in this region. Books were produced even in the small Jewish communities on these islands, and not only in the relatively large community on Crete. Twenty-nine manuscripts have survived from these locations. This material teaches of the presence of the demand by an educated Jewish population for books in diverse fields, including philosophy, Bible commentary, homiletical literature, medicine, and Kabbalah. Thanks to the efforts of these copyists, classical Jewish writings were preserved for future generations. These works will continue to provide a fertile field of research for scholars, due to their contents and to their being the subject of scholarly research as manuscripts. The colophons that were written by copyists reveal the locations where they received the original texts to be. Someone who copied a book for his personal use, in contrast, did not feel the need to supply such information. Professional copyists were paid for their services; although this is not stated explicitly in the colophons presented in the article, but in many instances we hear of this. Some copyists had to make major efforts in order to obtain the source for their copying, and at times they traveled far and wide for this purpose. The article illustrates the existence of Jewish communities in the small islands around Greece, especially in the thirteenth-sixteenth centuries. Most of the books were copied for the scribe's own use, thereby teaching of the intellectual level of the book readership. The colophons are the "identity card" of the copyist, and also contain the name of the book and details about the author. Colophons virtually disappeared after the invention of the printing press, to be replaced by title pages in printed works. VL - 6 IS - 6 ER -
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