“Beautiful Books with Beautiful Covers”: The Bindings of Hebrew Manuscripts in Late Medieval Ashkenaz

Abstract:Binding, which adapts a written text to its intended use, is one of the most formative stages of book production. The scarcity of extant medieval bindings makes any discussion of how Hebrew manuscripts were originally bound rather speculative, but such a discussion is nonetheless worthwhile. To shed light on the practices of bookbinding among Jews, this article examines various aspects of bookbinding in Ashkenaz on the basis of selected examples of extant medieval bindings and primary written sources relevant to the matter. The aspects to be discussed include the question of Jewish binders, the role of bindings as a material marker of manuscripts in Jewish private libraries, and the ways in which Hebrew books were rebound when they entered Christian book collections.