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Bodleian Digital Library
@BDLSS
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OK, we have a thread for you. MS. Canon. Or. 81, fol. 95v: detail of dog and ferret-like animal
As you may know, we digitized nearly 800 Hebrew manuscripts as part of our #PolonskyProject collaboration with @DigitaVaticana. bav.bodleian.ox.ac.uk screenshot of Hebrew manuscripts in Digital Bodleian
These manuscripts include some very beautiful Hebrew Bibles, such as MSS. Kennicott 1, 2 and 3:

digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/8c26…
digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/51d6…
digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/28cb… MS. Kennicott 1, fol. 5r, with pen flourishing and gold leafMS. Kennicott 2, fol. 26r: page decorated with gold and micrographyMS. Kennicott 3, fol. 1v: decorated page
The project also introduced us to the wonderful world of decorative text, including the beautiful carmina figurata in this manuscript of the Talmud:
Generally, however, we were digitizing for completeness and scholarly value rather than beauty. For example, we digitized 77 volumes by 12th-century philosopher Moses Maimonides. digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/9f36… MS. Canon. Or. 78, fol. 15r: text page in three columns
We also digitized a lot of commentaries on the Talmud and the Hebrew Bible, which were made to be used. One of the most important commentators was Rabbi Shlomo Itzhaki, known as Rashi. Most of our Rashi commentaries look like this. digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/9d51… MS. Oppenheim Add. 4° 188, fol. 4r: plain text page
Of course, there are limits to how boring a Hebrew manuscript can get. One of our "plain" Rashi commentaries contains this marginal beauty: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/452e… MS. Pococke 127, fol. 5v: marginal drawing of a lion(?)
Dogs decorate this page of a commentary on Rashi's commentary (with additional marginal commentary for good measure): digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/a956… MS. Huntington 517, fol. 1rMS. Huntington 517, fol. 1r: detail of text and drawings
But we were particularly excited last week to come across this 14th-century Italian copy of Rashi's commentary on the Pentateuch. digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/4cf3… MS. Canon. Or. 81, fols. 1v and 2r, with coat of arms and marginal decoration
There are carmina figurata: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/64a9… MS. Canon. Or. 81, fol. 16rMS. Canon. Or. 81, fol. 23vMS. Canon. Or. 81, fol. 46v
There are garlands held by disgruntled dogs, and birds eating everything in sight: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/2f89… MS. Canon. Or. 81, fol. 8rMS. Canon. Or. 81, fol. 8v: bird eating number
Entwined dragons: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/22a0… MS. Canon. Or. 81, fol. 93v: dragons with entwined necksMS. Canon. Or. 81, fol. 93v
A sheep and a cow (and some more hungry birds): digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/9afc… MS. Canon. Or. 81, fol. 96r: sheep and cowMS. Canon. Or. 81, fol. 96r: whole pageMS. Canon. Or. 81, fol. 96r: birds eating vines
Pen-flourishing, and in the midst of it a worried bird: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/6f6d… MS. Canon. Or. 81, fol. 128vMS. Canon. Or. 81, fol. 128v
A full-page temple menorah in rich colours: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/13b1… MS. Canon. Or. 81, fol. 132v: menorah
Delicate micrography: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/1569… screenshot of fols. 188r-190v
And our favourite folio, which includes:

- black and orange dragons
- an archer in a thicket of vines
- a pen-and-ink rabbit within a micrography Seal of Solomon
- a dog chasing a very demure ferret(?)

digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/8ef6… MS. Canon. Or. 81, fol. 95v: full pageMS. Canon. Or. 81, fol. 95v: archer, vines, and rabbitMS. Canon. Or. 81, fol. 95v: dragons with entwined necksMS. Canon. Or. 81, fol. 95v: dog and ferret/stoat
While we were looking at this manuscript, we got very worried that it was in fact perhaps not MS. Canon. Or. 81, Rashi's commentary on the Pentateuch. Especially because our TEI catalogue says MS. Canon. Or. 81 isn't decorated. hebrew.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/catalog/manusc…
Is it too beautiful to be a commentary after all? Thankfully not. The shelfmark, the Latin note on the (beautiful) pastedown, and the Neubauer catalogue entry all indicate that MS. Canon. Or. 81 is in fact a Rashi commentary. shelfmark label reading Neubauer catalogue number: N. 189Neubauer catalogue entry for Canon. Or. 81
So we filed a pull request to update the TEI record: github.com/bodleian/hebre….

The end.
(If you don't like that ending, please enjoy this tracing of the lion on fol. 1v: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/a6d0…) MS. Canon. Or. 81, fol. 1r, traced lionMS. Canon. Or. 81, fol. 1v, original lion
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Bodleian Digital Library
@BDLSS
Right, it's #InternationalDogDay, and boy (boi?) do we have a thread for you.

Animals on Show 1 (42): digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/07a9… Advertisement for A Most Beautiful DOG
The English bulldog appears frequently in our digitized Curzon collection of cartoons from the Napoleonic Wars. Here, a bulldog named Wellington and a Russian bear attack a monkey representing Napoleon. Curzon b.28(111), a bulldog with
Meanwhile, back in London, a "most Wonderful and Sagacious...LEARNED DOG" could be seen as part of a variety show. He could tell time, count money, and "spell any Person's Thoughts by the impenetrable Secret". digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/8cc7… #InternationalDogDay advertisement for Le Chien Savant, or, The LEARNED DOG
Read 21 tweets
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Bodleian Digital Library
@BDLSS
'...boke ys myn. Ely[]th ye qwene'
'This boke ys myn Katherina the qwene'

This beautifully-decorated 14th century psalter, now held by @ExeterCollegeOx, was owned by both Elizabeth of York and Katherine of Aragon, Tudor queens-consort of England: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/4000… Handwritten inscription inside a medieval psalter, partially faded, with ownership notes of Elizabeth of York and Katherine of Aragon.Illuminated calendar page from a medieval psalter.Illuminated page from a medieval psalter.Detail of an illuminated page from a medieval psalter.
The entire manuscript has been digitized by @ExeterCollegeOx and made availble on Digital Bodleian.

Every single page is decorated. In the calendar which starts the psalter, medallions depict activities associated with the months, and signs of the zodiac. digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/4000… Detail of an illuminated medallion from a medieval manuscript, depicting a man on horseback holding a hawk.Detail of an illuminated medallion from a medieval manuscript, depicting a man gathering crops.Detail of an illuminated medallion from a medieval manuscript, depicting the zodiacal sign Taurus as a bull.Detail of an illuminated medallion from a medieval manuscript, depicting the zodiacal sign Cancer as a crab.
The calendar later had information added concerning the families of kings Henry VII and VIII. digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/4000… Detail of a handwritten addition to a medieval psalter.Detail of a handwritten addition to a medieval psalter.Detail of a handwritten addition to a medieval psalter.
Read 6 tweets
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Bodleian Digital Library
@BDLSS
This pretty scene of castles and horses is in fact a depiction of the coming of the Antichrist, from the 15th-century apocalyptic
"Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur". Today we'll be touring all 15 signs of the Antichrist in this manuscript, MS. Douce 134: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/3854… MS. Douce 134, fol. 64: horse paradeMS. Douce 134, fol. 6r: detail
Signs 1 and 2 of the coming of the Antichrist: the sea rises to the mountaintops and then descends out of sight.

MS. Douce 134, ff. 41v-42r digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/9175… #FolkloreThursday MS. Douce 134, fol. 41v: rising seaMS. Douce 134, fol. 41v: rising seaMS. Douce 134, fol. 42r: descending seaMS. Douce 134, fol. 42r: descending sea
The third sign of the coming of the Antichrist: the gathering together of the fish and sea monsters. (It appears that the sea has risen again since the second sign.)

MS. Douce 134, fol. 42v digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/fc85… #FolkloreThursday MS. Douce 134, fol. 42v: fish and sea monstersMS. Douce 134, fol. 42v: fish and sea monsters
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Dr. Amanda H. Steinberg
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يKitāb Gharāʾib al-funūn wa-mulaḥ al-ʿuyūn, or The Book of Curiosities, now resides at the @bodleianlibs. This book's existence, much less it contents, were unknown to us until this manuscript copy resurfaced in 2000. A double page spread from the Book of Curiosities showing text in a circular arrangement.
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