European Bible manuscripts and their Masorah traditions are still a neglected field of studies and have so far been almost completely disregarded within text-critical research. This volume collects research on the Western European Masorah and addresses the question of how Ashkenazic scholars integrated the Oriental Masoretic tradition into the Western European Rabbinic lore and law. The articles address philological and art-historical topics, and present new methodological tools from the field of digital humanities for the analysis of masora figurata. This volume is intended to initiate a new approach to Masorah research that will shed new light on the European history of the masoretic Bible and its interpretation.

Hanna Liss is Full Professor and Chair of the Department of Bible and Jewish Biblical Interpretation at the Heidelberg Center for Jewish Studies and University of Heidelberg, Germany. Her main research areas are Medieval Jewish Exegesis and Medieval Jewish Thought, Research on the Masorah in Western European Bible and Commentary Literature, Modern Jewish Bible Exegesis, and Hermeneutics. Recent book publications include Jüdische Bibelauslegung. Jüdische Studien 3). Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2020, and Tanach. Lehrbuch der jüdischen Bibel. Fourth edition. Winter: Heidelberg 2019. Jonas Leipziger studied Protestant Theology and Jewish Studies in Neuendettelsau, Heidelberg, Hanover (New Haven, USA) and Jerusalem. He earned his PhD with a dissertation on reading practices in ancient Judaism (CRC 933, University of Heidelberg). His research interests include Second Temple Judaism, Greek Bible, and the history of reading. Recent publication: Material Aspects of Reading in Ancient and Medieval Cultures. Materiality, Presence, and Performance (eds. A. Krauß/J. Leipziger/F. Schücking-Jungblut; Material Text Cultures 26; Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020).