Event

2018-2019 Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies & the Herbert D. Katz Center Distinguished Fellow’s Lecture in Jewish Manuscript Studies Sponsored by the Jewish Studies Program Professor Elisabeth HollenderGoethe Institute Frankfurt A Mahzor is a Mahzor is a Mahzor? Studying CAJS Rare MS 382 Medieval liturgical manuscripts have been studied because of their outstanding features, such as illuminations, unusual rites, or because of material features such as size and commentaries. Even the critical edition of the Ashkenazic mahzor by Goldschmidt and Fraenkel although based on a selection of manuscripts that represent what is considered to be "standard" with regard to the liturgical texts, searches for unusual texts that are not transmitted in many manuscripts. This lecture focuses on a single 13th-century liturgical manuscript, CAJS MS 382,  that could be described as "average" with few distinctive features. It will be treated both as material object and as textual witness, showing how much can be deduced even from seemingly "normal" elements and small details.Registration link: http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/mahzor.html