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Manuscript scans, openly accessible.

A curated index of Hebrew Bible and Masoretic manuscripts available through the IIIF standard — searchable by date, region, scribal tradition, and free text.

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Showing 22 of 22 manuscripts

Aleppo Codex

c. 920 CE · Yad Ben-Zvi, Jerusalem

The Tiberian Masoretic codex Maimonides used as his textual reference, and the basis for modern critical editions. About 60% survives following the 1947 Aleppo riots; the surviving folios are the most authoritative witness to the Ben-Asher tradition.

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Codex Babylonicus Petropolitanus

916 CE · Russian National Library, Saint Petersburg

Also known as the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets. 225 folios containing the Latter Prophets — Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve — dated to 916 CE in the colophon. Distinctive for combining a Western (Tiberian) consonantal text with Babylonian supralinear vocalization, making it the principal scholarly witness to the Babylonian pointing system.

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London Codex

c. 920–950 CE · British Library, London

A substantially complete Tiberian-tradition Pentateuch — 186 folios of Genesis through Deuteronomy with full vocalization, accents, and Masorah magna and parva. Roughly contemporaneous with the Aleppo Codex; copied and pointed by the scribe Nissi ben Daniel ha-Levi. Acquired by the British Museum from the Sassoon collection in 1891.

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Leningrad Codex

1008 CE · Russian National Library, Saint Petersburg

The oldest complete Hebrew Bible — basis of the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the standard reference text for modern scholarship. Closely follows the Ben-Asher tradition.

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Cordova Bible

1479 CE · The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary

A Sephardi Hebrew Bible (337 leaves, parchment, illustrated) written in Cordova by Isaac Sasson in 1479 — three years before the Spanish Expulsion — and corrected in Badajoz by Abraham ben Solomon ben Jacob in 1483. Catalogued as Codex 571 in Benjamin Kennicott's 1783 Dissertatio Generalis; preserves a rare marginal variant at 1 Samuel 14:44 reading "yamut" that aligns with the Septuagint.

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Toledo Pentateuch (Hilleli copy)

1241 CE · The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary

A Pentateuch in three volumes (424 leaves of parchment) copied in Toledo by Israel ben Isaac ben Israel for Abraham ben Solomon ben Abidarham, finished Sivan 5001 (1241). The colophon claims the codex is an exact transcription of the Hilleli — a celebrated 7th-century Masoretic codex now lost. The scribe's accuracy was praised by Rishonim including the Radak and the Meiri, making this an important surviving witness to the Hilleli tradition.

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The New York Latter Prophets

9th–10th c. · The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary

An early Latter Prophets manuscript (110 leaves of parchment) recovered from a genizah in Yazd, Persia. The vocalization and accentuation reflect the Tiberian tradition, but the masorah contains Babylonian material and the biblical text has been modified in places to conform to Babylonian textual traditions — a significant mixed-tradition witness. Cited in I. Yeivin's The Aleppo Codex of the Bible (1968).

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Toledo–Constantinople Bible

1492–1497 CE · The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary

A Sephardic Hebrew Bible (390 leaves of parchment) whose text was completed by Abraham Khalif in Toledo in Nissan 5252 (1492) — the year of the Spanish Expulsion — and whose masorah was added by Hayim ibn Hayim in Constantinople in 1497. The codex is incomplete, lacking Genesis 1:1–Deuteronomy 33:26. Subsequently owned by Karaite scholars in 18th-century Cairo before being acquired in Constantinople in 1896 by E. N. Adler.

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Ashkenazi Micrographic Bible (Prophets and Hagiographa)

c. 1300 · The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary

A large-format Ashkenazi Bible (349 leaves of parchment, 48.5 × 36.0 cm) of the Prophets and Hagiographa, copied in Germany around 1300 in Ashkenazic square script with full Tiberian vocalization, accents, and Masorah magna and parva. Initial words appear in large script surrounded by zoomorphic micrography — Masoretic letters drawn into animal and figural shapes — a major example of the Ashkenazi micrographic Bible tradition.

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Italian Pocket Pentateuch

15th c. · The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary

A pocket-sized illuminated Italian Pentateuch (254 leaves of parchment, 14 × 10.5 cm) copied in the 15th century in Italian square and semi-cursive Hebrew hands, with Haftarot (prophetic readings) and the Five Scrolls (Megillot) appended for liturgical use. Vowels, accents, and initials illuminated in multiple colors. Acquired by E. N. Adler and donated to JTS.

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Yemenite Pentateuch (Genesis–Exodus)

15th c. · The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary

A 15th-century Yemenite manuscript of the first two books of the Pentateuch (Genesis 1:1–Exodus 40:36) in Yemenite square Hebrew hand, with vowels, accents, and Masora magna and parva — accompanied by Maḥberet ha-Tījān, the principal Yemenite compendium of grammatical and orthographic rules for the biblical text. 163 leaves of parchment with figured decorations in multiple colors and red-lettered chapter openings. Catalogued among JTS's 'Precious Possessions' (2001).

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Yemenite Pentateuch and Psalms Fragments

15th c. · The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary

A 15th-century Yemenite manuscript (18 leaves of parchment) containing fragments of the Pentateuch and the book of Psalms with Masorah and a grammatical introduction. The biblical text is in Yemenite square script; the Masorah and grammatical treatises are in Yemenite semi-cursive. Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic.

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Yemenite Genesis with Targum and Saadia

14th c. · The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary

A 14th-century Yemenite Tāj (triple-text Pentateuch) — 131 leaves of Genesis 4:11–48:11 with Targum Onkelos in Aramaic and Saadia Gaon's Tafsīr (Arabic translation) alternating verse by verse. Yemenite square script. Acquired by E. N. Adler and brought to JTS in 1922.

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Yemenite Deuteronomy with Targum

14th c. · The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary

A 14th-century Yemenite Deuteronomy (36 parchment leaves, partial — Deuteronomy 2:30–29:1 with gaps) with Targum Onkelos following each verse. Yemenite square script with full Tiberian vocalization for the biblical text and Masora magna and parva; the Targum carries Babylonian (supralinear) vocalization — preserving the Yemenite distinction of pointing biblical Hebrew Tiberianly while pointing Targum in the Babylonian system.

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Italian Kings Fragments

11th–12th c. · The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary

Five parchment leaves from 1 and 2 Kings in early Italian square Hebrew hand, dating to the 11th–12th century — among the oldest surviving Italian Bible manuscripts. Written in three columns of thirty lines, frame-ruled in hard point, with masoretic notes in the margins. The vocalization deviates from standard Tiberian convention in distinctive archaic ways — dagesh rafeh in aleph, dagesh lene and rafeh in non-begedkefet consonants, the shin/sin dot inside the letter rather than on top — features documented by Pilocane (2002) as characteristic of pre-standardized Italian biblical orthography. Recovered from binding waste in the Modenese archives.

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Yemenite Former Prophets with Targum

13th c. · The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary

A 13th-century Yemenite codex (114 parchment leaves) of the Former Prophets — Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings (extant: Judges 16:17–2 Kings 5:24) — in Yemenite square Hebrew hand, with Targum Jonathan alternating verse by verse. Supralinear (probably Babylonian) vocalization. Published in facsimile in 1974 with introductory remarks by Alejandro Díez Macho as Targum to the Former Prophets, Codex New York.

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Second Gaster Bible

11th–12th c. · British Library, London

A bound collection of late-11th- to early-12th-century Hebrew Bible fragments (37 folios written in three columns of twenty-three ruled lines) in Oriental square hand, with Masorah magna and parva. Originally Cod. G. 150 in the collection of the rabbi and scholar Moses Gaster (1856–1939); acquired by the British Museum from him on 12 April 1924. Imagery published openly via the OPenn portal at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries.

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First Gaster Bible

10th c. · British Library, London

A bound collection of 10th-century Hebrew Bible fragments in Oriental square hand with Masorah magna and parva — among the earliest surviving Oriental Bible manuscripts, contemporary with the Aleppo Codex. Companion to the Second Gaster Bible (BL Or 9880). Originally in the collection of the rabbi and scholar Moses Gaster (1856–1939); acquired by the British Museum from him on 12 April 1924.

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Torah Fragments (Gaster Collection)

12th–16th c. · British Library, London

Three bound Torah fragments — portions of Genesis–Exodus, Exodus, and Leviticus — gathered in the Gaster collection. Acquired by the British Museum from Moses Gaster on 12 April 1924.

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Ketuvim (BL Or 2373)

13th c. · British Library, London

A 13th-century Ketuvim manuscript (125 folios with numerous lacunae) containing portions of Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. Incomplete at the beginning and the end. Acquired by the British Museum from the Jerusalem antiquities dealer Moses Wilhelm Shapira on 23 July 1881.

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Cairo Genizah Bible Fragment (T-S AS 72.79)

11th c. · Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter Collection

A Bible fragment containing Exodus 35:5-7 with Saadya Gaon's Arabic translation — written in the same hand as the Leningrad Codex. One of relatively few surviving manuscripts that can be tied directly to Samuel ben Jacob, allowing folio-level comparison with B19a.

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Cairo Genizah Bible Fragments

11th–14th c. · The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary

A bound collection of large-format Cairo Genizah Bible fragments (42 leaves, 46.2 × 37.5 cm) in Oriental Hebrew square hand spanning roughly the 11th to 14th centuries. Includes textual fragments from across the Tanakh — the Pentateuch, Judges, 1 Samuel, 1 Kings, Ezekiel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, and Nehemiah. Acquired by E. N. Adler and brought to JTS in 1922.

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