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The Project

Avi BenEmanuel edited this page Apr 27, 2023 · 11 revisions

This project purpose is to authentically reproduce the Publication of the Hebrew Bible (1866) as was done by Meir (Max) Letteris

ספר תורה, נביאים וכתובים : מדויק היטב על פי המסורה
Sefer Torah Neviʼim u-Khetuvim : meduyaḳ heṭev ʻal pi ha-Masorah
הוגה בעיון נמרץ על ידי מאיר הלוי לעטעריס. לעטעריס.

The Letteris Bible

ספר תורה, נביאים וכתובים : מדויק היטב על פי המסורה
Sefer Torah Neviʼim u-Khetuvim : meduyaḳ heṭev ʻal pi ha-Masorah
הוגה בעיון נמרץ על ידי מאיר הלוי לעטעריס. לעטעריס.  

The Letteris Bible

'The Letteris Bible became a world-wide phenomenon in the form prepared for the British and Foreign Bible Society and published in 1866." Norman H. Snaith, in his article on "The Ben Asher Text" (in Textus: Annual of the Hebrew University Bible Project, 2 [1962], 8-13), has now drawn attention to the fact that "Actually this 1866 Letteris Bible seems to be based to a marked extent on MS Erfurt 3 [=Or fol 1213 in Berlin's Preussischen Staatsbibliothek], readings of which are to be found in the Michaelis 1720 Bible. Whether Letteris actually consulted this MS I do not know, but he often has the same reading where the MS varies from printed editions. This MS is now known as Berlin MS Or fol 121 and is kept in the Westdeutsche Bibliothek in Marburg. It is important because there is to be found in its margins the text of Okhlah we-Okhlah, an ancient collection of Massoretic notes, apparently the only such study to which the famous Jacob ben Hayyim had access. Since it was held in the last century that the true Massoretic text of Ben Asher was to be found in the Second Rabbinic Bible of 1524-5, printed by Bomberg in Venice and edited by Jacob ben Hayyim, it could then be said that the Letteris Bible was a good, sound text. It is closely allied to the text of Jacob ben Hayyim because of its closeness to MS Erfurt 3.' - Prof. Harry M. Orlinsky

The Music of the Bible was discovered using the Letteris Bible 'They were deciphered from the musical signs of the Hebraic Bible, a study I was able to conclude, after many years of laborious but fascinating research. These signs still appear (next to another group of signs: the vowel points) in the complete editions of the Bible that are faithful, according to religious authority, to the traditional version known as the "Masoretic" one. Certain Bibles are not considered as such, as they include manifest modifications among which the following are relevant to our subject: shifting, intervention and suppression of signs, changes which the revealed music show to be incompatible).' INTRODUCTION DECIPHERING THE MUSICAL SIGNS OF THE BIBLE - Suzanne HAIK-VANTOURA

Html files of Project

Html file of project

Working notes

Please edit only the individual books.

The full text is overwritten by the individual books.

Letteris comments

"Mesora" are in a separate file Comments_full.csv
this file lists book,chap,verse,word number in verse,word

Editors comments

are in a separate file Editornotes_utf8.utf8_txt
In some fonts Holam Hasher merges with the Shin dot, in words such as חֹשֶׁךְ or with the Sin dot, as in שֹׂבַע (These dots may or may not appear merged on your screen, as that depends on your device's Hebrew font.) The Lettris does not have these "double dots" and the Holam isn't printed AT ALL in these cases.

פ & ס

To differentiate between פ & ס when used as paragraph definitions and those which are actual vocalized letters, the following has been implemented.

  • &#x05F2 ײ as פ (double yud as open paragraph)
  • &#x05F1 ױ as ס (vav yud as closed paragraph)
  • &#x05F0 װ as book separator

Resources used:

See scans of different prints of the Letteris Bible in Resources folder.

Source used for bases of work is WLC Tanach from Unbound

Tools used (recommended) See tools in Tools folder

  • BabelPad: to edit UTF8 files easily
  • BabelMap: a tool to see character mappings (not necessary)
  • EzraSIL: Font with good placing of Nikudot and Taamim

Hebrew unicode