Polonsky Foundation Catalogue of Digitised Hebrew Manuscripts

A three-year project by the British Library to digitise and make freely available 1,300 Hebrew manuscripts from its collections

Project details

The British Library’s Hebrew manuscripts collection is one of the finest and most important in the world. This three-year project has made half of the collection –1300 manuscripts (435,000 digitised images) – freely available online in full for the first time.

An accompanying bilingual Hebrew-English curated web space – aimed at a wide public audience – showcases a selection of the manuscripts, contextualised with articles and videos on a range of key themes – to learners and the public worldwide to explore the riches of the collection in more depth.

The project also involved conservation of four Torah scrolls, which had textile covers (mantles), made of silk brocade and linen.

Subsequent to this project, the National Library of Israel (NLI) has digitised the other half of the British Library’s manuscript collection. The entire collection is now freely available to all on both the British Library website and the NLI website.

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Subject area: Cultural heritage and digitisation

Subject areas

Cultural heritage and digitisation

We support major libraries and museums in digitising and displaying the riches of their collections, to make them available to researchers and the wider public in innovative and attractive ways.

Humanities education and research

We support research in the humanities at significant academic institutions, educational initiatives to inspire young people about the humanities, and the broadening of educational opportunity.

Excellence and innovation in the arts

We support artistic heritage, the development of new creative work and the nurturing of young performers.