MOSES IBN ZABARAH dippedhis stylus in the rich brown ink andwas about to apply it to a folio ofthin, crisp parchment almost com-pletely filled with clear, squareHispano-Jewish script. But he didnot touch it. He preferred to lingerand muse.

This would be the concluding pa-ragraph of his colophon to the Bookof Books he had copied from begin-ning to end during the last 10months. He looked with satisfactionat the pile of similar folios stacked onthe desk. A total of 460 sheets, onemore beautiful than the other. Andnow he was about to complete thelast one, the 461st.

He let his mind wander furtherinto the past. Yes, he had come along way since those days when hestarted out as an obscure travellingscribe, going from one Jewish com-munity to another throughout Spainin search of a patron who wouldcommission him to copy some manu-script or other.

He also had a great dream: tocreate his own manuscript — a true,vocalized copy of the traditionallyaccurate Bible that would be of in-comparable beauty in script and illu-mination. Even more beautiful thanthe famous manuscript written inCerbera in the year 1300 CE.

And now the dream was fulfilled:he, Moses Ibn Zabarah, and theartist Joseph Ibn Hayyim, had writ-ten and illuminated a book whichcould compete with the manuscriptof Samuel ben Abraham Ibn Nathanand Joseph the Frenchman of Cer-bera. Compete, and perhaps sur-pass.

He knew, however, that thedream could not have been fulfilledbut for his young, rich and ambitiouspatron, Yitzhak Ibn Don Solomon diBraga di la Coruna. Yitzhak hadseen the Cervera Bible. His latefather's library contained many pre-cious manuscripts, but he had neverseen one equal to this in splendour.A passionate lover of books, heached to acquire it. But the ownerwould not part with it at any price.And so he made a decision: he wouldcreate his own manuscript, and itwould be even more beautiful, morerichly decorated.

Thus it was that Moses Ibn Zabar-ah now sat, stylus poised, ready topen the dedication of his completedwork to his patron:

"The admirable youth, Yitzhakson of the late honourable and be-loved Don Solomon di Braga di laCoruna. The blessed Lord grant thathe study it, he and his children andhis children's children throughoutthe generations... and God enablehim to produce many books, bookswithout end."

Obviously Moses Ibn Zabarahlooked forward to obtaining morecommissions from his patron, espe-cially as it seems that he had previousconnections with the Braga family,and it may well he that it was he whoinfluenced Yitzhak's decision.Joseph Ibn Hayyim was engaged toillustrate' and illuminate the manu-script, and the work began.

Judging by the magnitude of theproject, it is safe to suppose thatJospeh Ibn Hayyim was a well-known artist, and that he was wellacquainted with the Cervera Bible,whose influence can be seen in manyof his illustrations. What is certain isthat he was a great artist in his ownright, inspired by his own imagina-tion both in style and motifs.

The two men worked in closecooperation, the scribe planning thelayout and allotting the spaces forillumination, as was customary in theproduction of medieval manuscripts.Now the work was complete.

The scribe dipped his stylus in theink once more and wrote his closing

Michael and Linda Falter.

Emmanuel Pratt

words: "Blessed be he who pre-serves this book in his treasury. Itshould be kept for the children ofIsrael for generations... Amen."

The date of the conclusion of thework was subtly coded by accentuat-ing certain letters in the text of thelast paragraph of the colophon. Theyadded up to read: the third day of themonth of Av in the year 5236 fromthe Creation. In terms of the Grego-rian calendar, this meant July 24,1476.

The sky was dark. Through theopen windows the scribe heardmonotonous chanting approaching.A procession of white-robed Domi-nican friars, torches in hand, passedalong the narrow street below. Thechanting died away, and soon a glowappeared in the sky. In the centralsquare of Coruna a great bonfire hadbeen lit. In it books were beingburned. The Spanish Inquisition wason the march.

THE FATE OF Yitzhak Ibn DonSolomon's library, as of the youngman himself, is unknown. But thebeautiful manuscript escaped theflames, to lie hidden, no one knowswhere, for nearly three centuries.

On April 5, 1771, a certain PatrickChalmers walked into the RadcliffeTrustees Collection in Oxford withthe manuscript in his hand. He wasoffering it for sale, and on the adviceof the librarian, Dr. Benjamin Ken-nicott, the Radcliffe decided topurchase it. Patrick Chalmers, Es-quire, returned to obscurity richerby 52 pounds, 10 shillings.

Kennicott well knew what he wasbuying. A canon of Christ ChurchCathedral and a learned Hebraist,he had studied hundreds of Hebrewbiblical manuscripts from all overEurope, comparing their textual

variations. His young wife, HannahMore, studied Hebrew to assist himin his ambitious research to ascertain"the accurate Hebrew text of theBible."

The Ibn Zabarah manuscript wasnever part of Kennicott's personalcollection. However, when it wastransferred to Oxford University'sgreat Bodleian Library in 1872, itwas registered as "Kennicott One."

ANOTHER 108 years passed in twi-light, with only the privileged ex-perts having access to the exquisitemanuscript. Until early in 1980, ayoung London printing engineer,Michael Falter, spent a leisurelySunday afternoon visiting a perma-nent display of ancient Hebrewmanuscripts in the British Library.

Michael Falter has a long familyprinting tradition "It goes back tothe time when my great-grandfatherwas a travelling salesman inCzechoslovakia going on his bicyclefrom one town to another, sellingtype to printers," he told me. Hisgrandfather had a printer's shop inPrague, and his father, a printingengineer, moved first to Vienna, andthen, as a refugee, to London, wherehe started a printing machinery busi-ness.

Michael has a fascination for anti-que printing presses. He acquiredtwo more than a hundred years old,planning to use them to reproduceprinted works in the same way asthey were originally produced. Someyears ago he went to see Dr. DavidPatterson, chief librarian of the Bod-leian's Oriental collection, but theplan did not materialize. Now, in theBritish Library, the idea returned.and he paid another visit to Dr.Patterson, who invited him and hisfiancée, Linda, to look at the "Ken-nicott."

They were stunned by its splen-dour. And yet there was somethingelse – a challenge and a cry from thedistant past: "Blessed be he whopreserves this hook in his treasury. Itshould he kept for the children ofIsrael for generations... Amen."

That was an injunction that hadnever been fulfilled. He, MichaelFalter, would fulfil it. He wouldmake it possible for Jews all over theworld to admire and study it. Hewould produce an exact facsimile ofthe Kennicott Bible.

"It is difficult to describe the ex-traordinary feeling we had at thatmoment," says Michael. "We de-

cided there and then that this was themanuscript we wanted to make afacsimile of. No other. This would beour first. Kennicott One would beFalters One."

And Falters One would be pro-duced in 550 copies.

THE FIRST thing was to secure acontract from Oxford University. Itwas a two-year battle. "We had noprevious works to show them," saysLinda, "and we didn't even knowthen that the library itself was bid-ding for the same project."

Why was the Bodleian interestedin making a facsimile of one of itsmost treasured gems? Would it notlower the value of the original?

"The original has no price, so itcannot be diminished," she replies."But every time somebody uses themanuscript it deteriorates in someway: there is wear on the binding,there is wear on the pages. And if nofacsimile is made, it will eventuallydisappear. It will fall apart and theywill have to lock it away and nobodywill see it. And without blowing ourown trumpet, we are actually per-forming a very valuable function forthe library by producing this facsi-mile for them."

When the Bodleian finally had toadmit that they were abandoning theproject because it was impossible toproduce an exact replica of the ori-ginal, Michael and Linda were giventhe contract.

NOW THEY were on their own tocope with problems that seemed in-surmountable. The first was thepaper:

"As far as we have seen," saysLinda, "facsimiles normally don'tgive the feel of the original manu-script because of the quality of thepaper. We wanted to produce a workthat would have not only the lookbut the feel of the original, and so wehad special paper milled for us. Ithad to have the translucency ofparchment, so that the text and theillumination on the other side of theleaf would show through just slight-ly. It must not be smooth, and it mustnot be rough. Our facsimile was tobe printed on a miracle. And it was."

Most of their battles the couplehad to fight on the Continent. "Wewent all over Europe looking forprinters and paper," says Michael."For about a fortnight non-stop wewere seeing two printers a day."

No sooner was one problemsolved than another emerged. Themajor one was the box binding. Theoriginal Kennicott One manuscript,in spite of its five centuries ofwandering, is still in very good con-dition. This it owes to the magnifi-cent box-binding in which it is en-closed: the soft goatskin is stretchedover wooden boards which protect itfrom all sides.

"We have excellent hinders inEngland," says Linda, "andassumed that we could get very goodcraft binding at home. It took us sixmonths to discover that the bestbinder in England could not producework anywhere near good enough.We went as far as Milan to find one.It was our own printer, in fact, whointroduced us to him."

The Italian printer proved to bejust as much of an enthusiast for theproject as he is a perfectionist.. "We could not have found a betterman," says Michael. "The paper wewere so proud of was his greatestproblem, but he overcomes itheroically. Take the illumination,for example. There are 238 pages,illuminated in 11 colours. Most ofthem have a lot of gold. In 550 copiesyou have a total of 12,090 pages."After having tried all sorts of print-ing short-cuts we came to the conclu-sion that the only way to apply gold

so that it would feel like the originalwas the way it was applied to theoriginal – by hand. And that's whatwe are doing."

THE FALTERS were not satisfiedwith producing just the facsimile ofKennicott One. Attached to it, in aseparate twin volume, will be a fully-illustrated scholarly introduction byProf. Bezalel Narkiss and Dr. A.Cohen-Mushlin of the Hebrew Uni-versity.

To quote from this introduction,which deals with the historical andthe craftsmanship significance of theoriginal manuscript:

"It is a labour of love in whichthree people were involved: thescribe, the artist, and the patron,who all contributed their share,whether in inspiration or skill... Allthree are mentioned in the manu-script, and it is our first task todisentangle the motivation, inspira-tion, and roles of these three men inthe making of the Kennicott Bible."

A journalist may add another twopeople whose motivation and in-spiration in creating the facsimilewould take as much effort to disen-tangle.

The couple are very modest inspeaking of their creation, but thereis a justifiable note of pride in theirvoices when they talk of their deter-mination to achieve perfection downto the last detail:

"The two volumes will be sump-tuously enclosed in a presentationportfolio box which will itself beprotected by a specially designedshipping container. And each copywill be delivered personally by amessenger."

When the printing of the 550copies is completed, the plates willbe destroyed in the presence of Bod-leian librarians.

What was their investment in theproject?

Michael and Linda look at eachother and chuckle. Each adds aningredient of their investment:Blood. Sweat. Years of unsalariedwork for two people – and now ababy. Using up all our savings andborrowing more money. We havenothing left in the bank except onevery big overdraft...

They chuckle again, obviously en-joying their little Odyssey.

At the beginning of 1984, whensample pages and two dummy copieswere ready, Michael and Linda"split forces." Michael went to theU.S. while Linda came to Israel on asales trip. The first signs of successappeared immediately. Feedbackcame from all over the world: NewYork, London, the Israel NationalLibrary, Bar-Ilan University, TelAviv Museum, Tel Aviv University,Toronto, Sydney. and even the Im-perial Palace, Tokyo.

"We are very happy the waythings are going," says Michael.

There are even more significantsigns of a major breakthrough: Ox-ford and other major libraries allover the world are offering theirmost precious manuscripts for facsi-mile.

"We are considering one ancientHebrew manuscript. You'll have toexcuse me if I do not disclose whichone." smiles Michael.

The presses in Milan keep rolling.The first hooks are just being com-pleted. One copy will be in Jeru-salem in time for the JerusalemBook Fair. Behind all the excite-ment one discerns the fulfilmentthrough the blessing of Moses IbnZabarah: "And God enable him toproduce many books, books withoutend."

Published by Facsimile Editions 35,Hamilton , Terrace London NW8 9 RGEngland. Israel contact: P.O. Box 7758,Jerusalem.

PAGE SIX THE JERUSALEM POST MAGAZINE FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 1985

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