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HOW AN ARMENIAN IN EGYPT DONATED A RARE COPY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT TO ISRAELI FILMMAKER
17:17, 12 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan
A rare copy of the Tanach (Old Testament) that reached Israel in a
circuitous fashion and was donated to the University of Haifa by the
late film producer and well-known Israeli director Micha Shagrir, was
reunited with its "twin," a copy of the same edition that was already
in the Rare Books Department of the University of Haifa's library,
reads an article by Anav Silverman published by The Jewish Press.
When Shagrir informed the staff of the Younes and Soraya Nazarian
Library that he wanted to donate a 350-year-old copy of the Tanakh,
the staffers welcomed the idea, pleased that they could add another
antique edition of the Book of Books to the library's collection. But
they were quite surprised to discover that the volume, which had
been printed in Germany in 1677, was a near-duplicate of a Tanach
the library already had.
While the two volumes were very similar, they were not identical. The
copy the library owned was narrow with almost no margins, the new
copy had wide margins, in which there were numerous notes written
in Latin, in tiny handwriting, by no less than 10 different readers
in the 17th and 18th centuries. The editor of the edition and source
of the commentary that accompanies the printed text was David Clodil
(1644-1684), a theologian and Hebraist - a Renaissance-era scientific
discipline in which Christian scholars studied the Hebrew sources of
Christianity in depth.
How the volume made its way from a 17th-century Frankfurt printing
press to finding its twin in Haifa is a fascinating story. As Shagrir
told it, a month after Egyptian President Anwar Sadat came to Israel
in November 1977, Shagrir and a group of other Israelis made a
secret trip to Egypt. Towards the end of the visit, as he was walking
through the streets of Cairo, he found himself in a store that sold
antique books. It turned out that the proprietor was not Egyptian,
but Armenian, and he was a big fan of a film Shagrir had recently
released about the Armenian genocide.
When the shopkeeper discovered that he was speaking to the producer
of that film, he gave Shagrir a wrapped copy of a book, but made him
promise not to open it until he returned to Israel. When he returned
and opened the package, he was stunned to find the ancient volume. So
nearly 350 years after it was printed, and 37 years after it arrived
in Israel, the volume of the Tanach was reunited with the copy held
by the University. Shagrir passed away last month on February 4 at
the age of 77.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/03/12/how-an-armenian-in-egypt-donated-a-rare-copy-of-the-old-testament-to-israeli-filmmaker/
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/a-350-year-old-rare-tanach-finds-its-twin-in-haifa/2015/03/12/
17:17, 12 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan
A rare copy of the Tanach (Old Testament) that reached Israel in a
circuitous fashion and was donated to the University of Haifa by the
late film producer and well-known Israeli director Micha Shagrir, was
reunited with its "twin," a copy of the same edition that was already
in the Rare Books Department of the University of Haifa's library,
reads an article by Anav Silverman published by The Jewish Press.
When Shagrir informed the staff of the Younes and Soraya Nazarian
Library that he wanted to donate a 350-year-old copy of the Tanakh,
the staffers welcomed the idea, pleased that they could add another
antique edition of the Book of Books to the library's collection. But
they were quite surprised to discover that the volume, which had
been printed in Germany in 1677, was a near-duplicate of a Tanach
the library already had.
While the two volumes were very similar, they were not identical. The
copy the library owned was narrow with almost no margins, the new
copy had wide margins, in which there were numerous notes written
in Latin, in tiny handwriting, by no less than 10 different readers
in the 17th and 18th centuries. The editor of the edition and source
of the commentary that accompanies the printed text was David Clodil
(1644-1684), a theologian and Hebraist - a Renaissance-era scientific
discipline in which Christian scholars studied the Hebrew sources of
Christianity in depth.
How the volume made its way from a 17th-century Frankfurt printing
press to finding its twin in Haifa is a fascinating story. As Shagrir
told it, a month after Egyptian President Anwar Sadat came to Israel
in November 1977, Shagrir and a group of other Israelis made a
secret trip to Egypt. Towards the end of the visit, as he was walking
through the streets of Cairo, he found himself in a store that sold
antique books. It turned out that the proprietor was not Egyptian,
but Armenian, and he was a big fan of a film Shagrir had recently
released about the Armenian genocide.
When the shopkeeper discovered that he was speaking to the producer
of that film, he gave Shagrir a wrapped copy of a book, but made him
promise not to open it until he returned to Israel. When he returned
and opened the package, he was stunned to find the ancient volume. So
nearly 350 years after it was printed, and 37 years after it arrived
in Israel, the volume of the Tanach was reunited with the copy held
by the University. Shagrir passed away last month on February 4 at
the age of 77.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/03/12/how-an-armenian-in-egypt-donated-a-rare-copy-of-the-old-testament-to-israeli-filmmaker/
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/a-350-year-old-rare-tanach-finds-its-twin-in-haifa/2015/03/12/