The first half of this manuscript contains two sermons on charity translated from Latin. They were copied in 1589 by a scribe who signed as F. C. A. (f. 7v). The rest of the manuscript is the work of two different scribes who were active in the second half of the 15th century; this part contains a sermon for members of religious orders (ff. 8r-30r) and a treatise about sin and repentance (ff. 31r-49r). A calendar page (November/December, 14th century) containing several obituary notes was used for the binding. (ber)

The title of this manuscript is misleading: it does not mean, as it would in formal research, a collection of short biographies of the sisters of a particular cloister written by close associates in the following generation of sisters. On closer examination, the contents of the St. Gall Book of Sisters has two parts, probably composed at the beginning of the 1480s: Part 1, fols. jr-xxiiijv (pp. 5-14r of the new pagination): digests of the history of the cloister during the years 1229-1488, with references to supporting documents. Part 2, fols. xxvir-xxxvjr: letters exchanged between the Dominican nuns of St. Gall and those of the convent of St. Katherine in Nurnberg; fols. xlviijr-CClvjr are not in letter form (without salutations and formulas of greeting, etc.), but rather are records of Nurnberg usances (financial transactions) edited in report form, grouped by themes; fols. CCLIXr-CCLXIVv: a register. (men)

Described in fols. Ir-lxxxjv: a catalog of properties, farms and land holdings together with information on their productivity and income generated; after fol. 84 an inserted fascicle contain an index, in a hand from about 1600, with alphabetical locators on to the right-hand edge of the spread. (men)

Beginning in 1797, the Wädenswil reading society, which was founded in 1790, kept a handwritten annal that chronicled all local events of any given year. A member of the society would be designated as chronicler, who had the task of describing, by the end of the year, all events in Wädenswil that, from his point of view, were of importance. Detailed obituaries of individual personages are contained in the chronicle. For most years, it also includes descriptions of the weather, statistics regarding the population and an overview of food prices. In addition to local events, it also touches on cantonal and federal issues (among them the Bocken War, the Ustertag, the Sonderbund War). The chronicle was handwritten until 1886; the handwritten part consists of two volumes in folio-format. Later volumes consist of pasted newspaper clippings (1890 until 1945) and of typed pages, bound by year (1948-1974). The two volumes for the period from 1797 to 1886 are considered one of the most important sources for the history of Wädenswil in the 19th century. (scr)

This manuscript of the 'chess book', an allegorical treatment of the social order based on the game of chess, originated during the 1420s, probably in Lucerne. 24 ink-wash drawings show representatives of various social positions. (red)

The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville appears in this St. Gall manuscript from the second third of the 9th century, which is characterized by reorgainizations of the text as well as numerous corrections and additions made during the same period. The schematic drawings are in color, and the flyleaf contains a fragment with Anglo-Saxon minuscule from the end of the 8th century. (red)

This manuscript contains the full text of the Pentateuch and haftarot (weekly readings from the Prophets). The manuscript has six illuminated initial word panels found at the beginning of each of the books of the Pentateuch and at the heading of the haftarot. The semi-cursive Sephardic Hebrewscript and other codicological features of this manuscript point toward a Sephardic origin from the second half of the fifteenth century. It is likely that the Braginsky Pentateuch was the work of an artist who was active in the Lisbon School, which is known for producing around 30 distinctive manuscripts characterized by their largely non-figurative decoration: filigree initial word panels, floral and abstract pen work in purple ink, and multicolored dots and flowers. (red)

The "Counting of the Omer" is the ritual counting of the 49 days between Passover and Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks. In this manuscript, these days and their corresponding numbers, are inscribed in 49 quatrefoils. F. 18r shows a menorah with the seven verses of Psalm 67 inscribed in microscript on the seven arms of the candelabrum. The scribe Baruch ben Shemaria from Brest-Litovsk (Belarus) created this manuscript in Amsterdam in 1795 for Aaron ben Abraham Prinz, of Alkmaar in the Netherlands, as noted on the title page. The drawing on f. 1r, a page of calligraphic decoration, depicts the giant Samson as Atlas, since, according to rabbinical tradition, he was endowed with superhuman strength. (red)

Shelomo bar Joshua Adeni (1567-1625) was a Jewish scholar who devoted himself primarily to the study of the Mishnah (the first major written redaction of the Oral Torah). According to tradition, he spent three decades working on his commentary, writing his own thoughts and remarks in the margins next to and around the text of his printed edition of the complete Mishnah. His notes became so crowded that he himself had difficulty deciphering them, whereupon a patron enabled him to rewrite his collection of thoughts into a coherent work; the result is this Mishnah commentary. The Mishnah consists of six orders; this text is a commentary on the first part, the Zera'im ("Seeds"), pertaining to blessings, prayers and laws related to agriculture. The Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York holds a corresponding commentary on the sixth order of the Mishnah, the Tohorot ("Purities") (MS Rab33). It is dated 1611, so we can assume that our manuscript was written earlier. (red)

The Roman rite, generally known as Nussah Roma, is the oldest order of prayer outside the ancient lands of Israel and Babylonia, retaining many old Palestinian traditions. The ornamentation of this manuscript includes many attractive initial word panels, decorated with geometric designs and floral pen work, usually in red and blue ink. The illuminated opening page contains the initial word Ribbon (Master [of all Worlds]), which is set within a rectangular panel with red and blue filigree pen work and gold-leaf letters. In the bottom border there is an unidentified family emblem depicting a rampant lion. The manuscript was copied by Samson ben Eljah Halfan, a member of the Halfan family of scribes and scholars, whose ancestors were among a group of Jews who were expelled from France in 1394 and found refuge in Piedmont, in northern Italy. (red)

This codex contains prayers for the circumcision ceremony. The ceremony, depicted on f. 10r, takes place in a synagogue. The prophet Elijah, who will come in order to announce the advent of the Messiah, is considered to be present at the ceremony. An illustration on f. 18r depicts the blessing over wine. The decoration is the work of the illustrator Uri Fayvesh ben Isaac Segal, who was a prominent representative of the so-called Hamburg-Altona school for the production of 18th-century illuminated manuscripts, and who, according to current research, produced at least five more manuscripts in addition to this one. The title page bears the name of the owner, Joseph ben Samuel, as well as a not yet identified coat of arms with the Order of the Elephant, the highest order of the Royal House of Denmark. (red)

Apart from the daily prayers, this manuscript also contains kabbalistic commentaries and kavvanot (mystical intentions). In the kabbalistic school of Safed (Upper Galilee), the mystical aspect of prayer, as “the vehicle of the soul's mystical ascent to God,” is of great importance. The authorship of this prayer books is generally attributed to Isaac ben Solomon Luria (1534–1572). The manuscript begins with an unfinished title page that contains a decorative floral border in red, yellow and green, but without any text. In the ornamental colorful border there is the inscription “Samuel ha-Kohen, cantor in Broda,” who is either the copyist or perhaps the person for whom the book was written. The manuscript was a part of the collection of Naphtali Herz van Biema (1836-1901), an Amsterdam collector, whose books were auctioned in 1904. Many of these books had previously belonged to his wife's family of prominent orthodox philanthropists and bibliophiles known as the Amsterdam Lehren family. (red)

In 1728 Meir Cohen Belinfante copied this decorated psalter from the 1670 printed edition by the Amsterdam printer of Hebrew and Spanish books, David de Castro Tartas, who was active between 1662 and 1698. The manuscript has a decorated title page, which depicts David, the psalmist, and Aaron, making a clear reference to the first name of the patron, whereas the bottom part of this page portrays a scene of the biblical Joseph, making a correlation with the patron's father, also named Joseph. All decorations, including the title page, were executed in brown ink similar to the text ink. At the end of the manuscript, there is a text by the corrector, Isaac Saruk, who praised the precision of the manuscript and wrote a poem in honor of the patron Aaron de Joseph de Pinto, from whom the manuscript takes its name. (red)

This codex contains prayers, blessings and poems for a wedding ceremony, following the custom of the Jews of the island of Corfu. Additional poems are by a variety of poets, some by writers of the Hebrew Golden Age in medieval Spain, others by local authors, such as Elieser de Mordo. This manuscript is of great significance due to a cycle of sixty full-page illustrations from the Book of Genesis, executed in gouache. The illustrations are accompanied by Hebrew inscriptions, usually biblical verses identifying the scenes. They are the work of an artist, probably trained in Venice, who added his monogram in different variants (MC or M.C. MF.) to almost all of the illustrations. The left to right sequence of the pages suggests that a Christian artist must have first created the illustrations, and that the Hebrew texts were added afterwards. This manuscript from the first half of the 18th century, created on the island of Corfu, may have been a bridal gift from a member of the de Mordo family, a family which played an important role on the island at a time when the Venetian rule had to be defended against Ottoman attacks. (red)

This collection of cosmological treatises contains excerpts from a larger manuscript, presumably written by the same scribe Moses, which now is part of the Schoenberg Collection at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (ljs 057). The manuscript contains tables on lunar motion by Jacob ben David Jomtow (Bonjorn); three astrological works by Abraham ibn Ezra (1089 - about 1164): a fragment of Reshit Hokhman ("Beginning of Wisdom"), the larger part of Mischpetei ha-Mazzalaot ("Judgments of the Constellations") and the larger part of Sefer ha-Olam ("Book of the World"); and, as the last part the Sefer ha-Mivharim le-Batlamyus, i.e. Ptolemy's "Almagest". On f. 15r and f. 15v there are three images of constellations from classical antiquity: Orion (Ha-Gibbor ba-Te'omim, "the hero of twins") in bare feet and with a scimitar (f. 15r), Eridanus (Ha-Nahar, "river") and Lepus (Ha-Arnevet, "hare") (f. 15v). The imagery is based on the Arabic "Book of Fixed Stars", written in 964 by the Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi. (red)

The manuscript contains the homiletical commentary on the Pentateuch written by the greatest Yemenite Jewish poet Shalom Shabazi. Little reliable information about Shabazi's life is available. What is known comes from his own works, some 550 poems and a few other texts. Shlomo Zuker, on the basis of careful comparison with a number of other signed manuscripts, notably two manuscripts in the National Library of Israel, a Mishneh Torah fragment (Heb. Ms. 8° 6570) and a Tikhal of 1677 (Yah. Heb. 152), identified this Braginsky manuscript as an autograph of Shabazi. The text of this manuscript, containing the commentary on Genesis 37-Deuteronomy 31, differs from other known versions of the commentary. (red)

This manuscript contains one of the four autographs of Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, known as the Vilna Gaon ("exceptional Talmud Scholar") (1720–1797). He was revered during his lifetime already and is considered the most important scholar among Lithuanian Ashkenazi Jews; his teaching influences Judaism up to today. This autograph comments on a passage of the Zohar, the classic work of Jewish mysticism. The comments from this manuscript were printed in the 19th century, carefully reproducing even the marginal notes and corrections in this manuscript. (red)

This commentary by Bezalel Ranschburg (1762-1820), an important rabbi in the Jewish community of Prague, treats two difficult Talmud tractates: Horayot and Niddah; several passages from the commentary were printed as marginal glosses in the standard edition of the Talmud. Ranschburg was also the author of Responsa ("rabbinic answers") and other commentaries, now lost. This manuscript contains the imprimatur of the censor at the time, Carolus Fischer (1775-1844), as required in the 18th and early 19th century Austro-Hungarian Empire for printing Hebrew books. Despite the imprimatur of Fischer, a Christian who defended Hebrew language and literature against Christian detractors, this manuscript was first printed only in 1957. (red)

Isaac of Corbeil († 1280) is the author of this halakhic Small Book of Commandments also known as Sefer Mitzvot Katan (abbreviated SeMaK). This abridged version of the 613 positive and negative biblical commandments, and a few additional rabbinic ones, has been divided into seven daily sections to be read sequentially and completed once a week. After becoming popular in France, the SeMaK quickly reached Germany, where it was recognized as an authoritative halakhic work. This manuscript, B115, is the latest of the three manuscripts in the Braginsky Collection (also B240 and B182), exemplifying the complex diffusion of the SeMaK in Germany. The glosses are the work of Moses of Zurich, who lived in Zurich in the middle of the fourteenth century. Consequently, manuscripts containing Moses' glosses are called the Zürcher. Often comments and glosses in the form of rectangular shaped “windows” were added in the margins or in the text itself, producing aesthetically pleasing and imaginative page layouts. By not identifying the sources of these glosses, scribes frequently created difficulties in determining authorship of the commentaries. (red)

The importance of the Braginsky Pentateuch for the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible is comparable to that of MS L44a of the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, copied in Toledo in 1241. The Braginsky manuscript was copied in Spain, most likely in the second half of the fourteenth century, based on what was considered the original Hillel Codex. No trace of an original Hillel Codex has survived; it may have been used for the last time for a Pentateuch edition of Guadalajara, Spain, shortly before 1492. In truth, it is not clear whether the Hillel Codex ever existed, or whether it was a legend known from secondary sources. The manuscript is still bound in an old blind-tooled leather binding with (later?) brass ornamentation and clasps. (red)