Talmud, Medieval Manuscripts, and Spinoza: What I’m Currently Reading and Working On
Previous entry in this series: “From Herodotus to the Talmud: Additional Recommended Amazon Kindle books, on Classical Antiquity” (November 17, 2023). I recently visited the the new National Library of Israel building, which is beautiful and modern. Selfie I took there (also at a my Facebook post here):
Reading
Monika Amsler, The Babylonian Talmud and Late Antique Book Culture (2023). Really intriguing book. The full book is open-access at the Cambridge University Press website, here. As the blurbs from Jeremiah Coogan and Hayim Lapin state: “‘In this exceptional book, Monika Amsler offers a new account of the Babylonian Talmud that centers the material dimensions of information technology and textual organization in Mediterranean antiquity. Amsler integrates a capacious range of sources from throughout Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean, spanning roughly from the first to sixth centuries CE, in order to locate rabbinic knowledge production in a broader - and often neglected - context. Amsler demonstrates exceptional command of a wide range of sources and contexts, combined with a keen sensitivity to the material and social dimensions of late ancient knowledge [...] From information collection, to filing and indexing, to the construction of arguments, Amsler situates the Talmud within the world of book production in the Roman world, and in particular within the production of large compendia in late antiquity, and in the techniques for arrangement and juxtaposition that were essential to literate, rhetorical education”. She argues with Sussman and Elman, saying that it’s much more likely that the Talmud was a written work, not oral. This is something that I’ve leaned towards recently. Her thesis extends, in many ways, that of Boyarin, see next entry.
Daniel Boyarin, Socrates and the Fat Rabbis (2009). Not an easy read, but an important book that attempts to contextualize the genre of the Talmud.
Willem F. Smelik, Rabbis, Language and Translation in Late Antiquity (2013). Good book on wide variety of topics relating to the Talmudic approach to languages.
Christopher de Hamel, The Manuscripts Club: The People Behind a Thousand Years of Medieval Manuscripts (2023). This book, and the next one, are recent, accessible, entertaining books on various aspects relating to medieval manuscripts.
Mary Wellesley, The Gilded Page: The Secret Lives of Medieval Manuscripts (2021).
Jonathan I. Israel, Spinoza, Life and Legacy (2023). Incredible new book on Spinoza, and the massive impact he had on modernity, by a renowned historian of the Enlightenment.
Working on
I recently finished, uploaded to my Academia.edu page (requires registration): “Two Major Medieval Sources on Amoraic Chronology: R' Avraham ibn Daud's Sefer HaKabbalah and Meiri's 'Intro' to Commentary on Avot” . See my previous piece on medieval chronologies, where I mention I’m working on this: “Hebrew History: A List of Some Pre-Modern Jewish Chronicles” (September 29, 2023)
Hebrew Wikipedia entry - Alphabetical list of Rabbis in Chazal - רשימת תנאים ואמוראים - like the English Wikipedia entry “List of ancient Greeks”.