What is it about?
Writing your name in the front of a book you just purchased is a relatively common practice for signifying ownership. But what if the book in question is worth many months' work? One elegant solution of mediaeval Jewish book owners and scribes involved inserting acrostics to what was already written in such a way that--if you didn't know what you were looking for--you would never notice the name at all.
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Why is it important?
Previously it was assumed that any acrostic found within a Masoretic Bible was crafted by the scribe who wrote the text. Recently discovered acrostics reveal that this is not (necessarily) the case.
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This page is a summary of: Who Wrote Acrostic Signatures in Early Masoretic Bibles? The Case of Ḥananya ha-Levi ben Shelomo, June 2023, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004544840_023.
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