London Codex Masoretic Tanach Manuscript Or 4445

Torah: Pentateuch with vowel-points and accents, masorah magna and parva, aka London Codex. Folios 1-28, 125, 128, and 159-186 were added in 1539/1540, while the rest of the volume can be dated to the 10th century (920-950). The upper perpendicular stroke of the letter lamed is considerably lengthened out in the first line of a page. The left side of the columns is irregular, the scribed not having used the elongated letters. Verse-divisions were originally altogether absent in this codex (whereas they are regularly employed in Codex Babylonicus Petropolitanus, which marks the difference between these two manuscripts). Parts of letter aleph are generally used to fill up the line, perhaps to show that the name of the scribe began with that letter (there is no sufficient certainty on the point). The punctuation, which seems to be contemporary with the consonantal text, is not the super-linear system used in Codex Babylonicus Petropolitanus, but the ordinary system associated with the Tiberian school. The text of this manuscript is identical with the Palestinian or Western recension on which the textus receptus is based, and differs from the Codex Babylonicus Petropolitanus, which contains many readings attributed to the Babylonian or Eastern recension. There is considerable divergence between this text and the commonly accepted masoretic recension with regard to the open and closed sections (petuḥot and setumot). The number of verses in each book and each weekly section are given at the end of the books and sections respectively; no simanim or mnemonic devices are used, and there are also some divergences from the numbers as given in the masorah. The simanim are only marked twice, but the beginnings of the weekly sections are indicated by a later hand in the margins. Both masorah magna and parva were probably written up to a century later that the text. The later annotations seem to prove the Persian affinities of the manuscript. The masorah parva does not generally indicate קרי in the margins. The masorah magna frequently has a different way of expressing the masoretic statements than the one found in Ginsburg’s ‘ The Massorah’ (London, 1880). There are several references to masoretic authorities, including Ben Asher (see folio 40v, 106r). On folio 40r there is a statement indicating that there once existed a whole Bible written by the same scribe and punctuated by the same punctuator. Colophon : Folio 186v: נשלם ביום ג’ בשבת דהוא י”ז יומין לירח מרחשון דשנת אלפא ותמני מאה וחמשין וחד שנין למניין שטרות אנ”ס וכתב הצעיר מכל ישראל יועץ ש[?ל?] ודורש עזרת ה[?אל? …] מפחו בן [ … בן מ[…].