The Masoretic notes that appear alongside the biblical text written in geometric or figured shapes are little studied to date. The few existing studies usually focus on the form without paying attention to the content. The biblical Hebrew manuscript BH Mss1 (M1) has a huge number of Masoretic notes in figured patterns and while the existence of figured Masorah has been addressed, their designs have not been described and studied in relation to their content. This paper focuses on the figured Masorah notes, their location, shape and content. From a joint analysis of the form and content it is possible to conclude that the main purpose behind writing the Masorah in figured patterns in M1 is a practical one: to record all the information in the available space.

This article is the result of a research carried out under the auspices of the project “The Role of the Rabbinic Literature in the Textual Transmission of the Hebrew Bible II” (Ref: FFI2011-22888), part of the R&D Programme of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN)

Peer reviewed