Historical Annotations in Three Manuscripts from Natan ben Saʿadyah Ha-Kohen Šulʾel's Library

Abstract

The nagid Natan ben Saʿadyah Ha-Kohen Šulʾel was born in Tlemcen to a family of North African origin, and subsequently emigrated to Jerusalem and Egypt, where he was appointed nagid in 1484. As a learned man and religious leader, he was a lover of books, some of which he copied himself, and some of which he acquired and later sold or bequeathed. His personal story has been successfully outlined, but the story of his books is mostly unknown to date. Two manuscripts from El Escorial Library and one from the Bibliothèque nationale de France show enough evidence in order to be considered as part of Natan Šulʾel’s library—he copied one, probably commissioned the second one (which later became part of Daṿid ibn Avi Zimrah’s library), and he bought the third book for a widow. All three codices ended up their wanderings in Western libraries. In this paper I focus on issues related to the production and history of these three books by paying particular attention to their historical annotations, thus exploring Natan Šulʾel’s facets as patron, scribe, reader, and book collector in the social and cultural context of the late fifteenth-century Eastern Mediterranean.