van Wout Bekkum

Book review: Joseph Yahalom, Palestinian Vocalised Piyyut Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collection. Cambridge University Library Genizah Series 7 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997)

the French text to manuscript 7 (pp. 28-29) the footnote numbers jump from 45 to 53! Some of the observations that are found in the Hebrew footnotes are in the body of the French text. Besides these minor annoyances, there are a few others. Nowhere do the authors state why 1280 was selected as the cut-off date. Moreover, they say nothing about the fate of the Manuscrits medievaux en caracteres hebraiques series, mentioned above. Is it going to be discontinued completely? Are there any plans to describe Hebrew manuscripts written after 1280? Why is the title page in a mixture of Latin and French? The interesting poetic colophons are printed according to the line division of the originals. It would have been welcome to print them in their poetic forms, too, so as to make the acrostics and rhymes stand out in clearly. Despite these misgivings, the volume is veritable milestone in the annals of Hebrew manuscript research. The scholarly public eagerly awaits the publication of the subsequent volumes in this monumental series.