Long-term project funded by the German Research Foundation

      

Corpus Masoreticum, Heidelberg Center for Jewish Studies
Corpus Masoreticum
Corpus Masoreticum

»Studying Ashkenazi Bible manuscripts means getting up close to skill, beauty and devotion.«

Renate Smithuis

Dr. Renate Smithuis

Research Associate 2018–2021

Curriculum Vitae

Education

2000-2004

PhD „Abraham ibn Ezra the Astrologer and the Transmission of Arabic Science to the Christian West“ (first advisor: Prof. Dr. Philip S. Alexander), The University of Manchester

1991-1997

BA/MA "Old Style" Semitic Languages and Cultures (Arabic), Universiteit van Amsterdam

1990-1996

BA/MA "Old Style" Semitic Languages and Cultures (Hebrew/Aramaic), Universiteit van Amsterdam

Employment

Since 12/2018

Research Associate, Heidelberg Center for Jewish Studies, Chair of Bible and Jewish Biblical Interpretation, Project "Corpus Masoreticum"

4/2015 – 9/2018

Principal Investigator for the project "Catalogue of Codices, Scrolls and Other Texts in Hebrew Script  at the [John Rylands] University Library Manchester"

9/2009 – 9/2018

Lecturer in Medieval Jewish Studies, The University of Manchester

10/2006 – 8/2009

Research Associate, project "AHRC Rylands Cairo Genizah", The University of Manchester

10/2003 – 9/2006

Assistant Librarian, Genizah Project, The John Rylands University Library of Manchester, The University of Manchester
 

Publications

Smithuis, Renate. 2022. “Masora Figurata Explained: Page Layout, Text Layout and the Selection and Organisation of Masoretic Content in the Ashkenazi Bible British Library, MS Or. 2091.” Corpus Masoreticum Working Paper 1: 51–111.
Smithuis, Renate, and Philip S. Alexander, eds. 2013. From Cairo to Manchester: Studies in the Rylands Genizah Fragments. Journal for Semitic Studies Supplements 31. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Olszowy-Schlanger, Judith. 2017a. “Glossary of Difficult Words in the Babylonian Talmud (Seder Mo‘ed) on a Rotulus.” In Jewish Education from Antiquity to the Middle Ages: Studies in Honour of Philip S. Alexander, edited by Renate Smithuis and George J. Brooke, 296–323. Leiden and Boston: Brill.

Online Publication

Online image collection and catalogue of the c. 15,000 Rylands Genizah fragments (c. 26,000 images online, most of the work done 2005–2009): http://enriqueta.man.ac.uk/luna/servlet/ManchesterDev~95~2.

Edited Journals

K. Stuerzenhofecker and R. Smithuis (eds.), Judaism and Gender Studies – Melilah: Manchester Journal of Jewish Studies 13 (2019).

Editorial committee incl. R. Smithuis, Journal of Semitic Studies since 57:1 (2012)

D.R. Langton and R. Smithuis (eds.), Melilah: Manchester Journal of Jewish Studies 7–10 (2010–2013).

B. Jackson, D.R. Langton, E. Nissan and R. Smithuis (eds.), Melilah: Manchester Journal of Jewish Studies 6 (2009). 

Lectures and Presentations as Part of Corpus Masoreticum

08.07.2020, International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds: Letter Soup or Meticulous Data?: The Masorae Figuratae in British Library, MS Or. 2091 (paper accepted; conference cancelled due to coronavirus)

03.02.2020, Research Kolloquium at the Chair for Bible and Jewish Biblical Interpretation, Heidelberg Center for Jewish Studies: The Codicology of MS British Library, Add. Or. 2091

Research Interests

Medieval and pre-modern Jewish biblical interpretation, philosophy, Kabbalah, and Sciences; Intellectual history of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; Mediation of learning (Hebrew, Arabic, Latin); Jewish Medieval manuscripts; Cairo Genizah