1053     Codex     Sassoon   
   Hebrew Bible Tanakh  
   (MS Sassoon)  
   Dating to the 9th–10th century,       Codex Sassoon      is more complete than the Aleppo       Codex      and predates the Leningrad       Codex      by nearly a century.   


    An early, nearly complete Hebrew Bible provides critical insight into the development and spread of Abrahamic religions as well as the broader transition from oral to literary traditions in the Levant.    
    The History of the       Codex       Sassoon   
  A 1,100-year-old Hebrew Bible that is one of the world’s oldest surviving biblical manuscripts sold for $38 million in New York, becoming among the most expensive books ever bought. 

  The earliest, most complete copy of the Hebrew Bible is actually a book known as Codex Sassoon, named for its most prominent modern owner:     David Solomon Sassoon    (1880–1942), a passionate collector of Judaica and Hebraic manuscripts. Dating to the late 9th or early 10th century, Codex Sassoon contains all 24 books of the Hebrew Bible – missing only 12 leaves – and precedes the earliest entirely complete Hebrew Bible, the     Leningrad Codex    , by nearly a century. 
  The manuscript is the world’s oldest nearly complete copy of the Hebrew Bible. It was handwritten roughly 1,100 years ago on 792 pages of sheepskin, includes all 24 books of the Bible and is missing only about eight pages. Its writing and layout recall those of Torah scrolls read in synagogue.  
  The Codex Sassoon is believed to have been   written   sometime between 880 and 960.   It got its name in 1929 when it was purchased by David Solomon Sassoon, a son of an Iraqi Jewish business magnate who filled his London home with his collection of Jewish manuscripts.   Sassoon’s estate was broken up after he died and the biblical codex was sold by Sotheby’s in Zurich in 1978 to the British Rail Pension Fund for around $320,000, or $1.4 million in today’s dollars.  
  The following are the contents of the manuscript, divided into 24 books as in the manuscript itself (numbers are from the page numbers in the online NLI scan, and reflect the fact that some pages have duplicates):  
   Genesis: 003-035 (001-002=beginning of microfilm)   
   Exodus: 035-078   
   Leviticus: 077-100   
   Numbers: 100-129   
   Deuteronomy: 128-156   
   Joshua: 156-172   
   Judges: 172-188   
   Samuel: 188-224   
   Kings: 224-259   
   Isaiah: 260-283   
   Jeremiah: 283-315   
   Ezekiel: 315-341   
   Twelve Prophets: 341-363   
   Chronicles: 364-403   
   Psalms: 403-441   
   Job: 441-452   
   Proverbs: 452-460   
   Ruth: 460-462   
   Song of Songs: 462-463 (final page missing)   
   Ecclesiastes: 464-467 (initial page missing)   
   Lamentations: 467-469   
   Esther: 469-476   
   Daniel: 475-486   
   Ezra: 485-512 (513=end of microfilm)   
   Date     :    1053  
   Current Location:    Israel  
   Size / Format     :    792   pages / approx. 29   x   32.5   cm / 11.4" x 12.80" 
    PLEASE NOTE THAT I DO NOT TRIM THE GREY EDGES OF THE ORIGINAL SUPER HIGH RESOLUTION PAGES. (see photos) THIS IS ONLY TO KEEP THE ORIGINALITY OF THE MANUSCRIPT. HANDWRITTEN COMMENTS ON THE EDGES OF THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT ARE LEFT INTACT THIS WAY TO PROVIDE THE BEST FACSIMILE EDITION OF TANAKH.   
   Shipped with Free Express FEDEX delivery to worldwide.  
   Limited to just 10     Deluxe     leather-bound copies     , bound by a master bookbinder/old medieval manuscript expert with 40 years of expertise in book restoration     .