[Hamishah humshe Torah]. חמשה חומשי תורה

[Hamishah humshe Torah]. חמשה חומשי תורה

[Antwerp:

Christopher Plantin,

ca. 1573.]

This 16th-century Hebrew Bible, bound with the New Testament in Syriac, features an almost unbroken record of English ownership dating from 1698 to 1927 and spanning eleven different owners. The endleaves contain a manuscript table of contents in English and in Hebrew, as well as stenographic notes written in pencil. The first owner’s name inscribed in the book is that of John Russell (1698). We have identified two of the book’s 19th-century owners: H. J. Breay (1855) was likely The Reverend H. J. Breay, while E. P. Breay (1884) was a woman known for founding a home for blind children in Kilburn, England.

From the collection of Rare Book School