The Many Faces of the Rylands' Jewish Manuscripts

This online exhibition celebrates the completion of the project to create an online catalogue, with images and descriptions, of the manuscripts in Hebrew script in the John Rylands Research Institute and Library, Manchester.

This important collection of manuscripts is one of the best in the UK and contains many surprises. The collection includes beautiful manuscripts, including the gloriously illuminated Sephardi Rylands Haggadah. Other manuscripts look nondescript at first sight, torn scraps of parchment or badly damaged books, but contain precious evidence for Jewish life and thought in the far-flung Diaspora.  

This exhibition focusses on lesser-known items that illustrate the diversity of the collection and hidden details discovered by cataloguers. Never judge a book by its cover.  

Portrait photograph of Enriqueta Rylands

Collectors behind the Collection

Collectors behind the Collection looks at the people who collected the manuscripts. Just as you can tell a lot about a person by the books on their shelves, so you can tell a lot about manuscript collectors by what they collect.

Crop from Gaster Hebrew MS 2033

One Alphabet, many Languages

One Alphabet, many Languages illustrates the variety of the languages in the collection: all are in Hebrew script, but not all are in the Hebrew language.

Selection from Hebrew MS 45

Written in Images

Written in Images concentrates on the non-verbal elements in the manuscripts – the diagrams and the illustrations which are integral to the message they convey. Manuscripts are much more than words on a page.

Crop from Hebrew MS 8

Marks of Time

Marks of Time shows how manuscripts, like people, have biographies and how their life-histories are often marked on their pages.

Crop from the Rylands' Esther Scroll

Digitisation: the Future of the Past

Digitisation: the Future of the Past illustrates some of the ways in which digital technology has revolutionised the study of manuscripts and assisted our cataloguing.

Crop from Hebrew MS 6

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