Books Like Sapphires

From the Library of Congress Judaica Collection

Ann Brener

Books Like Sapphires spotlights selections from the Library of Congress’s storied Hebraic collection. Tracing the history of Judaica collecting in the twentieth-century United States, the book showcases varied works, telling their stories alongside vibrant color images. Many presented for the first time, these include a unique manuscript about a betrothal scandal in Renaissance Crete, an illustrated Esther Scroll, a poem from 1477 celebrating the new technology of printing; amusing rhymed couplets in 16th-century Padua; and the Washington Haggadah. Engaging and accessible, Books Like Sapphires celebrates these works as well as the history of Jewish philanthropy and the patrons whose foresight helped build an important collection of Hebraic arts and culture.  

This book also tells the story of the patrons and collectors, first among them Jacob Schiff, as well as archivists and curators, who made the storied Judaica archive at the Library of Congress the precious resource that it is today. 

Featuring the photography of Ardon Bar-Hama.

This publication was made possible through the generosity of the Martin J. Gross Family Foundation.

Cloth: $50
ISBN-13: 9781684581986
Pages: 272 | Size: 9 in. x 11 in.
Date Published: May 16, 2024
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A book that is fresh and compelling, a total pleasure to read.

Marc Michael Epstein

Vassar College

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Reviews

  • An introduction to the field through the lens of a particular collection, exceptionally readable and well-presented. A book that is fresh and compelling, a total pleasure to read.

    Marc Michael Epstein
    Vassar College, Author of Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink: Jewish Illuminated Manuscripts
  • A well written and interesting view on a selection of Hebraic rara. A beautiful and highly useful means of communicating the treasures that are known only to a few scholars to a wide, interested public.

    Katrin Kogman-Appel
    University of Münster, Author of Illuminated Haggadot from Medieval Spain: Biblical Imagery and the Passover Holiday
  • "Books Like Sapphires" is a splendid tableau laying bare Jewish book culture as an integral part of Jewish culture... Expertly curated and handsomely illustrated... Offering hours of edification and pleasure.

    CCAR Journal
  • Books like Sapphires ...a magisterial folio-sized volume... is a resource for scholars of both early modern religious life and literature and historians of the book. Nonspecialist readers, too, will appreciate the liveliness of Brener’s prose and the book’s design and illustration.

    Sixteenth Century Journal
  • A jewel of a collection....Brener's ...knowledge of these books and the stories that surround them attest to her profound grasp of what makes these texts exciting.

    Jerusalem Report

About the Author

Ann Brener

Ann Brener served as the Hebraic Specialist at the Library of Congress from 2009-2022. Prior to that she taught Medieval Hebrew Poetry at Ben-Gurion University in Israel and published two books on the subject, Judah Halevi and His Circle of Hebrew Poets in Granada and Isaac ibn Khalfun: A Wandering Hebrew Poet of the Eleventh Century. She lives in Columbia, South Carolina.

Award

Finalist of the 74th National Jewish Book Award

national jewish book award finalist

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