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This book uncovers cultural traces of the ancient Jewry of Eastern Europe from the 10th to 15th centuries. These traces take the form of translations from Hebrew into East Slavic, ranging from accounts of Old Testament prophets and other historical figures of interest to both Jews and Christians, such as Alexander the Great, to scientific and philosophical texts on everything from astronomy to physiognomy to metaphysics. Moshe Taube's fine-grained analysis teases out a robust picture of this massive cultural enterprise: the translators, their erudition, their biases, and their collaborative method of translation with neighboring Christians. Summarizing over thirty years of philological and linguistic research, this book offers a substantial original contribution to the cultural history of Jews in Eastern Europe and their interaction with, and influence on, Slavic culture in the Middle Ages and Early Modern period.

Moshe Taube is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Slavic Studies at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is author of The Logika of the Judaizers: A Fifteenth Century Ruthenian Translation from Hebrew and co-editor of The Slavonic Book of Esther: Text, Lexicon, Linguistic Analysis and Problems of Translation and The Secret of Secrets: The East Slavic Version.

“A perceptive and original analysis of the field from a world-leading authority. This is a condensation of a lifetime’s outstanding and innovative scholarly research into the historical and cultural relations between Jews and Russia.”—William F. Ryan, Professor Emeritus and Honorary Fellow at the Warburg Institute in the School of Advanced Study, University of London