Judith Olszowy-Schlanger — Learning Hebrew in Medieval England.

, , 2023 Hardcover, Pages: 204 p., Size:152 x 229 mm, Illustrations:24 col. English. New . ISBN 9780888442307. For inquisitive Christian minds in the Middle Ages, there were many reasons to learn Hebrew. The rediscovery of classical sources and Aristotelian philosophy and the engagement with Graeco-Arabic sciences that marked the renaissance of the twelfth century also brought about an acute awareness of the need for a philological understanding of the Hebrew language. In England in particular, various factors combined to encourage and facilitate the study of Hebrew texts, not only among well-known writers but also among English scholars whose names have not been preserved. They nevertheless produced bilingual Hebrew-Latin manuscripts in collaboration with Jewish scribes, along with manuals, textbooks, and reference aids to facilitate access to the sources. This volume presents an edition and analysis of one such learning tool: a thirteenth-century grammar written in Hebrew, Latin, and Anglo-Norman French (the vernacular language of the Jews of England) in a complex combination of Hebrew and Latin alphabets.