Washington, MOTB SIG. MS. 858

Valmadonna Bible (ex-Valmadonna 1)

Codex

Parchment

Brown (iron-gall)

Quill

There is ruling

Hard point

Grid of single vertical and horizontal lines

30

31

visible pricking

חמשה עשר בתמוז תתקמט

July 9, 1189

12th Century CE

The original scribe wrote the following on the final page (482): “Finished the Hebrew Ḥumaš, Targum, Haftarot, Ḥameš Megillot and Job on 15 Tamuz 4949 (July 9, 1189 C.E.).

England or Normandy

Ashkenaz

as stated by Malachi Bét-Arie:
MS ex-Valmadonna is written in a square Ashkenazic type of script and it is one of the three earliest dated manuscripts of its type. All the technical practices, but one, employed in producing this codex are common to early Ashkenazic manuscripts dated until about the middle of the 13th century, written either in France or Germany. (Beit-Arié - Banitt - Entin Rokéah, The Only Dated, p. 10.)

interlinear Targum

Bible

Pentateuch with Megillot, Haftarot and Job. On the folio jnkjnkjn number of

Complete

Tiberian

M. Beit-Arié - M. Banitt - Z. Entin Rokéah, The Only Dated Medieval Hebrew Manuscript Written in England (1189 CE) and the Problem of Pre-expulsion Anglo-Hebrew Manuscripts (London: Valmadonna Trust Library, 1985);
Engel- Beit-Arié, Specimens of Medieval Hebrew Scripts, Volume III: The Ashkenazic Script (Jerusalem: The Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 2017), plate 4.
An Unknown Ashkenazic Torah Scroll from the Turn of the 12th and the 13th Centuries. In: Emma Abate and Justine Isserles (eds.): From Cairo to Amsterdam: Hebrew Scrolls from the 10th to the 18th Centuries. Henoch journal, Vol. 43/1. Brescia [November 2021] pp. 105-135.