The world’s foremost publisher of illuminated manuscripts

Home About Us Press Facsimiles Services Order Form Contact Us enter search terms Search

H ISTORICAL B ACKGROUND Explore this page:

MAQUEDA, CASTILE 1422

A prominent Churchman, Don Luis de Guzmán,

Palacio de Liria, Madrid, Spain
THE ALBA BIBLE
A superb example of
manuscript illumination and
the very first translation of the
Hebrew Bible and glosses into
Castilian.
1,046 pages containing the first
translation of the Hebrew bible
into Castilian by Rabbi Moses
Arragel at the behest of Don
Luis de Guzmán, Knight of the
Order of Calatrava.
Executed in Maqueda, Spain
from 1422 to 1430
A strictly limited facsimile
edition of 500 numbered copies
commands the renowned scholar Rabbi Moses
Arragel de Guadalajara to undertake a task of
major significance. He is to translate the Hebrew
Bible into Castilian and compile an extensive
commentary, to be accompanied by a wealth of
illustrations and illuminations in a monumental
manuscript. The rabbi, loyal to his ancestors and
his people, was most reluctant to agree to prepare
a text which he felt might conflict with Christian
doctrine and thus expose Spanish Jewry to attack.
Pressure exerted by the ecclesiastical authorities
eventually forced him to relent. The manuscript
Folio 1v - Don Luis de Guzmán sits on the left
known today as the Alba Bible was completed in in a cathedral... more »
1430. It might well have become a symbol of hope
for those Jews and Christians who, prior to the tragic end of the Jewish presence in
medieval Spain, sought to improve Jewish-Christian relations. Instead, their attempts
failed, and the hostility fanned by the Inquisition culminated in the Expulsion of 1492.
From now on the manuscript, at that time abandoned and probably even left unbound,
will be able to play the role intended for it.

ISBN 84 60418 650 The Alba Bible is not merely a superb example of Spanish manuscript illumination. It is
Price: £41,000.00 all that remains of one of the last attempts by intellectual Jews and Christians to heal
purchase » the rifts that finally led to the calamity of expulsion. The facsimile was published as a
tribute to and celebration of the reconciliation and renewal of understanding taking
place in our own time.

Jewish culture penetrated deeply into Spanish life, and its influence can still be felt
now, even 500 years after the Expulsion. The successful integration of the Jewish
contribution was based on centuries of peaceful relations.

The eleventh century saw, in some areas, total equality of Jews and Christians. By
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Jews were instrumental in translating Greek
writers such as Plato and Aristotle from Arabic versions into Hebrew and assisting
Christians in making Latin translations, effectively reviving the intellectual world of
antiquity in Europe via Spain. Furthermore, Jewish works, such as Maimonides'
Guide to the Perplexed, were translated from Arabic into Hebrew and then Latin,
Folio 49r - The second dream of Joseph...
more » enabling them to have an impact on Christian scholars, and influencing scholars
such as Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas.

Rabbis such as Moses Nachmanides and David Kimchi embellished Spanish Jewry with
their wisdom and understanding, helping to engender a society that valued books not only
for their contents but also for their physical beauty. Judah ibn Tibbon, writing to his son,
urged him to "Make thy books thy companions. Let thy bookcases and shelves be thy
gardens and thy pleasure grounds. Feed in their orchards; pluck the fruit that grows
therein, gather the roses, the spices and the myrrh. If thy soul be full and weary, change
from garden to garden, from furrow to furrow, from view to view..."

In 1422, during a lull in the often intensely anti-Jewish

feeling in Spain, Don Luis de Guzmán, Grand Master of
Calatrava, arrived at a decision that only by commissioning
a Castilian Bible, translated by someone able to refer to the
Hebrew and to compile a commentary reflecting the Jewish
understanding of the texts, would Christians comprehend
the differences between Christian and Jewish attitudes, and
come to tolerate the other's views. Folio 57v - Dan: a knight bears a
pinkish-beige banner with the
emblem of a winged dragon...
The decision was itself remarkable, since Don Luis, as a more »
Folio 59r - From the opening to the high-ranking Churchman, wielded immense power in
Book of Exodus
Castile. He discovered that Rabbi Moses Arragel, from the small town of Maqueda in
Castile, was a person capable of such a task, and commissioned him to produce the work in
return for a generous remuneration. The Rabbi had good reason to be reluctant - by exposing the Jewish view he feared
he might fuel antagonism towards Jews, and himself in particular. He firmly refused, pointing out a Jewish prohibition
against illustrated Bible manuscripts. His protest sparked off a lively correspondence with the Grand Master that has
luckily survived.

T HE M ANUSCRIPT Explore this page:

The first twenty-five folios of the Alba Bible contain transcriptions of the detailed
exchanges between Don Luis and Rabbi Moses, documenting their negotiations up to the
moment when the Rabbi finally agreed to take on the task, perhaps against his better
judgement. A full-page miniature depicting its completion shows Don Luis de Guzmán
enthroned like King Solomon, with the Rabbi on his knees before him handing over the
codex. Two monks, a Franciscan and a Dominican, were assigned to help the Rabbi in his
work, doubtless in a supervisory role. A number of Christian artists were employed to
illustrate the text. What emerged is no less than a masterpiece. Known as the Alba Bible,
after its eventual owner, it is the most important manuscript to have survived from the
reign of King John II.

The Alba Bible, with its 513 folios and 334 miniatures, is a powerful work of visual art. But
still more significant is the vast commentary it contains. Rabbi Moses showed great
Folio 77r - The candelabrum. This independence and courage, and his translation and commentary make few concessions to
full-page illustration has been
skilfully inserted into the columns Christian thinking, although he must have been aware of the dangers awaiting both him
of text... more »
and the Jewish community. It is rich in extracts not only from rabbinical writings such as
the Targumim, Midrashim and Talmud, but also from later works such as the Zohar - the
source book of Jewish mysticism. Rabbi Moses may well have given the artists detailed instructions on the illustrations,
furnishing them with specifically Jewish interpretations of biblical scenes. The resulting images are also very important
as cultural records, since contemporary weapons, musical instruments, furniture and costumes are all depicted. The
cooperation between the Christian patron and the Jewish author-translator makes the Alba Bible a vital element in the
ancient and troubled Christian-Hebraic tradition.

RABBI MOSES ARRAGEL

Against such a social background, it is remarkable that Rabbi Moses Arragel

succeeded so often in presenting the Jewish view: no other extant manuscript
contains so many rabbinically inspired miniatures.

For instance, Cain kills Abel by biting his neck like a serpent, exactly as is described
in the Zohar. Similarly, religious objects from the Temple are depicted just as in
Hebrew Bibles of the same period. We know that Rabbi Moses Arragel finished the
manuscript on Friday 2 June 1430 in Maqueda, but a long time afterwards he had
still not been paid for his work, and all sight of him is then lost. Most of the Jews of
Maqueda converted to Christianity at the end of the fifteenth century, but the name
Arragel does not appear among those who were baptized. The Alba Bible seems to
be his only monument.

PUBLIC DISPUTATION Folios 68v-69r - The Israelites' flight...

more »

After the manuscript left his hands on that Friday in 1430, it was apparently
scrutinized by Franciscan censors in Toledo for a considerable time, probably until 1433. From there it was passed to the
University of Salamanca, where the Dominican Juan de Çamora carried out a preliminary examination, and it was then
submitted to a detailed examination at the Franciscan monastery in Toledo. This culminated in a public disputation at
which theologians, knights, Jews and Moors argued their views. Following this, the manuscript disappeared until 1622,
when it reached the great library of the Liria Palace, seat of the Grand Duke of Alba and Berwick, where it has been
housed ever since.

DON LUIS DE GUZMÁN

Fortunately for historians, the patron of the Alba Bible, Don Luis de Guzmán, is an
important and well-known political personage in the history of Spain. Ironically,
the Bible could not be ceremoniously presented to him on its completion, since war
was impending, and the scene magnificently depicted in it was probably never
enacted.

Folio 29v - The Cain and Abel cycle... more »
trend in Jewish-Christian relations.
Few records remain from the unsettled years of John II's reign (1406-54). Of these,
the Alba Bible is the most important to have survived. Despite the anti-Jewish riots
and mass conversions of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Spanish Jewry had
great powers of recovery. This unique work shows how, despite the prevailing
hostility to the Jews and, the looming problem of the conversos, it was still possible
for an enlightened individual to attempt to reverse the overwhelmingly negative

C ONTENTS Explore this page:

The first 50 pages of the manuscript contain Rabbi Moshe Arragel’s ‘Memorandum’. Moshe Lazar describes it in the
commentary volume as follows:

Having clearly stated that his intention was not to criticize or denigrate the faith and beliefs of Christians
but to present, as demanded by his patron, a full rabbinical exegesis accompanied by the diverging views of
Christian theologians, Arragel recommended to his readers to consider his method of presentation:

1. when there are no major or strong opposing views between the Christian and Jewish interpreters on a
concept, sentence or the intended meaning of a sequence, his gloss should be acceptable to readers of
both religions;
2. should he have forgotten, here and there, clearly to delineate between the contrasting opinions of
Christian and Jewish exegetes, the Christian reader, if confronted by a comment which might be
contrary to the principles of his faith, should consider it a Jewish opinion, but not intended as a
negation of the reader's faith; similarly, a Jewish reader, when placed before an opinion contrary to
the principles of his faith, should read it as a Christian interpretation, handed to him in a register of
diverging views by the friars working with him, and not as the opinion of a Jewish commentator or
rabbi;

Folio 186r - The death of Abimelech during the siege of Thebez.

3. wherever fundamental and opposing interpretations exist, they will be clearly indicated and brought to
the attention of the reader in the opening part of the glosses;
4. the selected commentaries represent the best he could find in the rabbinical tradition and in the
materials offered to him by the friars from Toledo and Salamanca;
5. as his work was intended solely to be a compendium of exegetical materials - leaving readers free to
accept or reject opinions which would not strengthen their faith - Arragel suggests that a proper title
for his scholarly enterprise should be “la memoratiua” (“the Memorandum”). Arragel might have had
in mind a similar technical Hebrew term used by medieval collectors of midrashim, namely yalqut
(collection), as for example in the work Yalqut Shim’oni.

Arragel also compiled a Glossary for the Perplexed in which he explains several hundred words and concepts, mostly
Latinisms, neologisms and technical terms including those which deal with key concepts in Christian and Jewish
interpretations of the Scriptures.

Folio 183v - Gideon selects those Israelites who drink from their hands, to fight against Midian... more »

The manuscript continues with the Biblical texts as follows:

Pentateuch Former Prophets Latter Prophets Writings

Genesis Joshua Isaiah Psalms
Exodus Judges Jeremiah Proverbs
Leviticus I Samuel Ezekiel Job
Numbers II Samuel Hosea Daniel
Deuteronomy I Kings Joel Ezra
II Kings Amos Nehemiah
Obadiah I Chronicles
Jonah II Chronicles
Mica Song of Songs
Nahum Ruth
Habbakuk Lamentations
Zephaniah Ecclesiastes
Haggai Esther
Zechariah
Malachi

T HE F ACSIMILE Explore this page:

1992

In 1992, His Majesty King Juan Carlos of Spain publicly retracted the 500 year old
order that signalled the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. It had never formally
been repealed. At last, Jews are officially welcomed back to the country from which
their ancestors were driven, and old communities re-established, in a sincere bid to
undo the evil committed by the Inquisition centuries ago.

COMMISSIONING THE FACSIMILE

This extraordinary and unprecedented turn of fate was commemorated by the

publication of a magnificent facsimile edition of this unique manuscript. After the
Duke of Alba generously offered to allow a facsimile to be made of his masterpiece,
the publishers of the Alba Bible facsimile received the following commission from
its new patron Señor Mauricio Hatchwell Toledano: "I want the most beautiful
facsimile ever produced, no more, no less..."
Their Majesties King Juan Carlos I and Sofia of
Greece, Queen of Spain.

The magnificent facsimile binding, intricately blind-tooled on all sides.

Just as the manuscript itself was ordered by a powerful leader, so the facsimile is the brainchild of Mauricio Hatchwell
Toledano the moving force behind the International Jewish Committee Sepharad '92, and the founder of the Fundación
Amigos de Sefarad of Spain. He decided that the Alba Bible would be a living testament to the spirit of 1992, reviving and
fulfilling the long-forgotten hopes of those who had laboured over it five centuries before.

Message from the Chairman of Sepharad '92

1492 represents a gigantic step in the history of mankind due to the discovery
of the New World. It is also the date of an event that deeply and forever
marked the destiny of Spain, since at that date it took the decision to expel its
Jews, which, as Professor John Eliott said, weakened the foundations of the
Spanish Monarchy at the very beginning of its imperial journey.

In fact, for Spanish Jews Sefarad was not a country of exile but rather a
homeland. Very rarely, if at all, did a Jewish community reach such
splendour, such glory and for such a long period, almost 500 years.

The school of translators of Toledo, cradle of the modern Spanish language, is Mauricio Hatchwell Toledano
an outstanding example of this Golden Age, a fortunate period in which the
faithful researchers of the three monotheistic religions, children of the same God, worked in harmony to
provide the world, in a unique and truly exceptional case, with some more light and more hope in a frame of
TOLERANCE.

1992 marked the fifth centenary of the sudden interruption of an age that still today holds us in awe. To
commemorate this spiritual odyssey, which belongs to the Jewish patrimony, Sephardim and Ashkenazim
together constituted the International Jewish Committee Sepharad '92. Its members were Jews and non-
Jews and included the Foundation Friends of Sefarad, Jewish communities throughout the world, and the
main North American and European Jewish Organizations. The Honorary Chairman was Nobel Laureate
Elie Wiesel.

We, the International Jewish Committee Sepharad '92 wish to give a balanced version of history, in
particular of our own history, in the dawn of the 21st century. 1992 must represent not only the legitimate
reminder of the tragedy we went through, but also the occasion to acknowledge and help the entire world:

1. to know and to learn the history of our ancestors in Spain, who were not only massacred by
intolerance but buried a second time by the forgetfulness of history
2. to remind the world, Jews and non-Jews, about what is unfortunately taken for granted, but which
has to be emphasized and repeated time and time again: the Jewish contribution, both Sephardi and
Ashkenazi, to Western civilization. In addition, as the People of the Book, Jews have in the last
generation, with the resurgence of the State of Israel, proved their ability in agriculture, high
technology and the art of military survival.
3. to acknowledge the message of the previous centuries: that TOLERANCE is a desirable form of
civilization for humanity and a formula for progress in the future of nations.

"Forgetfulness leads to exile while remembrance is the secret of redemption"

Mauricio Hatchwell Toledano

PRODUCTION OF THE FACSIMILE

Unrelenting in his quest for the finest quality, he

James Brockman, Master Bookbinder,
prepares the manuscript prior to
disbinding for photography.
James Brockman cuts the sewing so
that the leaves can be separated and
opened flat for photography.
Milan joined Linda Falter and the printer for regular meetings at the Palace in Madrid,
where proofs of each page were compared in every detail with the original, until the finest
possible colour-match was achieved.
commissioned Facsimile Editions, to produce the facsimile
to hitherto unsurpassed standards, combining the finest
materials and the very best craftsmanship.
World-renowned Israeli photographer,
Its paper, formulated to reproduce the exact feel and opacity David Harris, in his “studio” in the
basement of the Palacio de Liria,
of the original parchment, was milled in Italy for the Madrid. He stands behind a large-
facsimile. The pages of the manuscript were disbound at the format Sinar monorail camera and
umbrella flash heads.
Palacio de Liria in Madrid by James Brockman, the Master
Bookbinder from Oxford, enabling each folio to be laid flat
for photography. Israeli photographer David Harris brought
equipment from London and Jerusalem to Madrid in order
to photograph the manuscript, using large-format film,
especially manufactured in a single batch, and processed at
the same laboratory in order to ensure a constant colour
After photography the images are
balance. Over the following year, colour separators from processed in Madrid, Spain, and
inspected in the laboratory before
handing over to Facsimile Editions for
colour separation in Milan, Italy.

Every brush-stroke and gold dot was examined and all are reproduced in the facsimile. Michael and Linda Falter stayed
in Milan for the entire period of the production, where their team of craftsmen worked under their constant supervision.
Echoing the atmosphere surrounding the original making of the manuscript in Maqueda, specialists from all over Europe
were brought to Milan, to ensure that the facsimile would match the original as closely as possible.

THE BINDING

The original binding of the manuscript no longer exists, so a blind-tooled Mudéjar binding, now in Toledo Cathedral and
produced in the same time and geographical area as the manuscript, was used as a model for both the facsimile and for a
new binding of the original manuscript. Finding morocco goatskins large enough to cover the boards was a daunting task
for the binder, Angelo Recalcati, working from his atelier outside Milan.

The head and tail bands for Special tools were made to recreate the intricate, centuries-old blind- Solid brass clasps, catch-
each volume are sewn by tooling of the binding. enlarge » plates and studs were cast
hand. enlarge » and attached on leather
thongs. enlarge »

PRESENTATION AT THE PALACE

The culmination of this year-long publishing project took place on 31 March 1992 at the Pardo Palace, Madrid, when His
Majesty King Juan Carlos of Spain was presented with a copy of the Alba Bible facsimile. On the same occasion he
revoked the order of the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, and formally welcomed their descendants - and all Jews -
back to Spain.

Only 500 copies of the facsimile and its commentary volume have been produced. It is the publishers’ firm belief that by
making this medieval masterpiece available to a wider public, they are fulfilling the desire of its makers, and bringing to
fruition - albeit five centuries later than anyone would have wished - the atmosphere of tolerance and understanding for
which they laboured, and for which they - and many subsequent generations - have prayed in vain.

Their Majesties King Juan
Carlos I and Queen Sofia
welcome Michael Falter to
the Pardo Palace in Madrid.
31 March 1992
Mauricio Hatchwell Toledano presents the first two copies
of the Alba Bible to King Juan Carlos I of Spain and
President Chaim Herzog of Israel.
Linda Falter discusses the production of the
facsimile with Their Majesties King Juan
Carlos I and Queen Sofia.

C OMMENTARY V OLUME Explore this page:

The facsimile should not be regarded as a mere object of beauty, for those who made the manuscript were primarily
mindful of the words and message it contains. Aware of this, Mauricio Hatchwell Toledano set in motion the
commissioning of leading scholars to provide detailed explanations and analyses of the manuscript. The results of their
work appear in an elegant, heavily illustrated commentary volume designed by the eminent typographer Gerald
Cinamon (with assistance from Anthony Kitzinger), with chapter openings designed and hand drawn
by master calligrapher Satwinder Sehmi. The commentary volume sets the manuscript in its historical background, in
the period leading up to the Expulsion and is edited by Jeremy Schonfield, specialist in medieval manuscripts and
Jewish culture.

The commentary volume describes in detail the content of each page.

Shlomo Ben-Ami, at the time, Israel's Ambassador to Spain, describes Sephardi Jewry's contribution to Spanish
civilization.

Sonia Fellous-Rozenblat, of the C.N.R.S., Professor of Jewish Art at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations
Orientales, Paris, examines in detail the background to the commissioning of the manuscript and describes the
symbolism of its magnificent iconography. Sonia Fellous has since published a beautifully illustrated description of the
manuscript’s iconography: Histoire de la Bible de Moïse Arragel (Somogy éditions d’art, France ISBN 2-85056-516-4)

Folio 224v - Joab kills Amasa during the pursuit of Sheba... more »

Adriaan Keller, Doctoral researcher at Leiden University, investigates the codicology and palaeography of the
manuscript.

Moshe Lazar, Professor of Comparative Literature at U.C.L.A., studies the Bible translation and the commentary
appearing in the manuscript.

Angus McKay, Professor of Medieval Spanish History at the University of Edinburgh, discusses Jewish-Christian
relations in Spain at the period of the Alba Bible.

The commentary volume is bound in a morocco binding to complement that of the facsimile.

S PECIFICATION Explore this page:

CODICOLOGY
Size 405 x 295 x 110mm (16" x 11.5" x 4.5") approximately.
Pages vary slightly in size. 1,026 pages. 513 folios numbered 1-513, plus one document.

PAPER
Several years of research and development culminated in the production of a paper that exactly
simulates the opacity, texture and thickness of the parchment on which the manuscript was
written. The paper, made by a small Alpine paper mill, is similar to that used in the Kennicott
Bible, Rothschild Miscellany and Barcelona Haggadah facsimiles, and has been widely acclaimed
as the closest likeness to parchment ever achieved. The neutral pH, 160 gsm paper is uncoated
and was developed exclusively for this facsimile.

COLOUR SEPARATION & PROOFING

The colour separators have combined laser scanning equipment with painstakingly precise hand
work in order to prepare the colour separations necessary for the first proofs. These proofs were
then compared with the original manuscript in Madrid by the separator, the publisher and the
printer, and corrections made. New proofs were produced and compared yet again to the original.
Up to four sets of proofs were made for some pages, to ensure their exact likeness to the
manuscript.

PRINTING
The facsimile is printed by offset lithography in up to twelve colours. Every single sheet was
printed under the close and critical supervision of the publishers, who stayed by the press in Italy
for the duration of the printing.

GOLD & SILVER

The three different types of gold and silver found in the manuscript are all faithfully copied in the
facsimile.
Raised gold and silver is reproduced by a unique process developed especially by the publishers
for their facsimiles. Craftsmen apply the metal leaf individually to each page, using a special
building-up process so that the finished gold is raised as in the original.
Flat gold and silver are applied using wafer-thin leaves of metal and, where necessary,
overprinted to give the wide range of colours and textures of gold found in the original
manuscript. Gold powder is applied to all those illuminations that in the original contain brush-
applied gold.
Since much of the silver in the manuscript has tarnished, yet another new technique was
developed to simulate oxidized silver, both flat and raised.

HOLES
The pages of the manuscript contain many holes, either occurring naturally in the skins used by
the scribe or made by bookworms over the centuries. These are reproduced in the facsimile.

CUTTING
Each page is trimmed to the size and shape of the original, including irregularities, and then
gilded at the edges.

BINDING
As the manuscript's original binding no longer exists, a morocco goatskin Mudéjar-style binding
of the period on wooden boards, blind-tooled with interlacing geometric designs and finished
with solid brass clasps on leather thongs, was faithfully copied. The original is located in the
Cathedral of Toledo. The quires are hand-sewn and the quire formation of the original Alba Bible
has been scrupulously observed.

EDITION
Strictly limited to 500 copies
150 Founder's Copies in special presentation cases with full-leather rounded spines, numbered 1
to 150
300 copies in presentation cases with square spines, numbered 151 to 450
50 Ad Personam copies, numbered I to L

DESTRUCTION OF THE PRINTING PLATES

On completion of the 500th copy, the printing plates were destroyed in order to preserve the
edition's significant investment value.

DONOR CERTIFICATE
Each facsimile may be accompanied by a certificate calligraphically inscribed by our calligrapher
to commemorate the owner's family or the recipient.

SHIPPING, PACKAGING & INSURANCE

Price includes robust protective packaging, worldwide courier delivery and insurance
Courier service, usually by UPS
International overnight service usually available at no extra charge
Electronic invoice and tracking details delivered to you immediately via email

P URCHASE The Alba Bible is priced at £41,000.00. purchase »

Website and Content © 2020 Facsimile Editions Limited