A major exhibition has opened at the Bodleian Library entitled ‘Crossing Borders: Hebrew Manuscripts as a Meeting-place of Cultures’. It is based on the Bodleian's own Hebrew holdings - one of the largest and finest collections of Hebrew manuscripts in the world – and was conceived and designed by the Bodleian’s Hebraica Curator, Dr Piet van Boxel, who is also the Centre’s Librarian. He was assisted by Sabine Arndt, his co-curator, whose temporary position was made possible by the Centre. The exhibition was opened by the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University in December.

The exhibition describes how Jews, Christians and Muslims lived together during the Middle Ages, and throws new light on Jewish experience across Europe and the Middle East in the 300 years between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries.

The manuscripts on display – written in Hebrew, Latin or Arabic - illustrate how Jews and non-Jews interacted socially and culturally in both the Muslim and Christian worlds. Similar decorative patterns, writing styles, script types and text genres appear in manuscripts in different languages from the same region, showing how communities in the same localities shared taste and technology. Hebrew manuscripts produced in Spain, Italy or Northern Europe may therefore look quite different from each other, but closely resemble non-Hebrew books produced in the same regions.

This exhibition shows how Hebrew scribes adopted elements of the host culture, and produced manuscripts that demonstrate coexistence, cultural affinity and even practical cooperation between Jews and their non-Jewish neighbours. This evidence of shared assumptions challenges received ideas about the treatment of Jews in the Middle Ages.

The ‘Crossing Borders’ exhibition focuses on medieval culture at the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities, and tells a largely unfamiliar story – one that can help us understand relations between these communities even today.

A carpet page from the Kennicott Bible, undoubtedly the most beautiful and extensively illustrated Spanish Hebrew manuscript of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This reveals influences as diverse as Spanish Bible illustrations, popular European art, and Islamic non-figurative carpet and vegetal decorations.

Interactive digital technology allows visitors to the exhibition to 'turn the pages' of this extraordinary treasure virtually.

The Michael Mahzor, a Jewish festival prayer book produced in Germany in 1258, was illuminated by a Christian, who was unfamiliar with Hebrew script, so painted the first illustration upside-down.

An exhibition catalogue is available: Crossing Borders: Hebrew Manuscripts as a Meeting-place of Cultures
edited by Piet van Boxel and Sabine Arndt.

The exhibition runs until 3 May at the Exhibition Hall of the Bodleian Library.
Opening hours:

9.00am - 5.00pm (Mon - Fri)
9.00am - 4.30pm (Sat)
11.00am - 5.00pm (Sun)

Admission free