Manuscript, Taj Torah (Keter Torah – Books of the Torah), with vocalization and cantillation marks, Masorah Ketanah and Masorah Gedolah – Books of Bereshit and Shemot (until the middle of Parashat Vayakhel). [Yemen, ca. 15th/16th century].
Particularly neat script, in black ink, with color ornaments. Impressive manuscript, a typical example of the 15th and 16th century Yemenite scribal art in Taj books (see references to similar manuscripts below).
The manuscript opens with the verse "The Torah that Moses commanded us…" and the initials of the verse "My help is from G-d, the Maker of heaven and earth" (Psalms 121:2), scribed within a lattice border partially colored in red. The text on this page was scribed in hollow, calligraphic letters, filled alternately with red and an additional color (faded). Decorative hollow letters were also used in other places throughout the manuscript (for example, in the concluding lines and verse tally at the end of each Torah portion).
The verses of the Torah were scribed in square script, with vocalization and cantillation marks. Winding Peh letters in several places. The Masorah Ketanah was written at the foot of the Biblical text. The Masorah Gedolah was written in micrography in the other three margins, in zig-zag patterns. In several places, new parashiyyot are indicated with with hollow, calligraphic letters (pe or samekh), filled in with color and sometimes ornamented. The Shabbat Torah readings are indicated in a similar way (marked with the letters aleph through zayin). Fine ornaments mark the beginning and end of special Torah readings (for festivals and special days).
Rectangular tailpiece at the end of the Book of Bereshit, in a design similar to that of the title page, including the sum of verses in this book. The Song of the Sea was scribed in brickwork pattern, with red ornaments.
The Books of Bereshit and Shemot are almost complete; lacking only several leaves at the end (the manuscript ends in the middle of Parashat Vayakhel, and is lacking Parashat Pekudei), as well as one leaf in the middle of Parashat Vayechi (49:8-28). Damage to marginal text of Masorah Gedolah in several places.

[149] leaves (leaf [149] bound out of sequence, and is really a continuation of leaf [146]). 24-25 cm. Condition varies. Most leaves in good-fair condition. Stains, wear and tears. Margins of many leaves trimmed, occasionally affecting text of Masorah. Open tears to some leaves, including large open tears affecting text. Large open tears to title page and leaf [2], with significant damage to text.

For similar manuscripts see: Ms. Sassoon 330-331 (Ohel David I, p. 24), offered at auction in Sotheby's New York (Sassoon: A Golden Legacy), December 2020, lot 56 – two volumes comprising all Five Books of the Torah; and JTS Library Ms. 5594, which comprises books Vayikra-Devarim (Brumer catalog, VII, listing 1938). The JTS Library manuscript may be the second part of the present manuscript. The Sassoon manuscript was also possibly written by the same scribe.
Another similar manuscript (Bereshit and Shemot) is documented in: Benjamin Richler, The Hebrew Manuscripts in the Valmadonna Trust Library (Tel-Aviv, 1998), no. 7, pp. 9-12.
Exhibition: Reise an kein Ende der Welt – Journey to No End of the World (curator: Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek), Jewish Museum of the City of Vienna, 2001. See exhibition catalog, pp. 50-51.
Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, YM.011.054.