Seal. 2 (Or. 4719). 425 X 293 (345 X 213), ca. 60 lines, 2 colums, each ca. 100 mm. wide; columns and lines ruled with a drypoint stylus. Binding : Cardboard; half-leather, gold-stamped on spine; 19th cent. Quires indicated by Roman capitals, probably written when the MS was rebound but since the leaves are numbered by the same hand it can be concluded from in consistencies in the foliation that these signatures are older than the present binding : 4IV(32) 3(paper) 111(42) l(paper) 15IV(163) 111(169) 6IV(217) 3(220). The fifth quire “E” does not occur. Fols. 33-35 and 43 are blank paper leaves. Fol. 36 is missing. It must be concluded from the presence of the paper leaves and the inconsistencies in the numbering of leaves and quires, that, apart from the fifth quire, the outer bifolium of the sixth quire must also be considered lost. Seal. 3 (Or. 4720). Vol. 1: 1 + 371 fols., 380 X 295 (259 X 194), 38 lines. Vol. II: (310 - 10 = 300) + 2 fols. (see below), 385 X 295 (259 X 194), 38 lines. Binding : The two volumes of this MS have recently been rebound; both have wooden boards with leather backs and two copper clasps attached to leather straps*. The previous binding (vellum on cardboard), which was restored in the Library in 1951, possibly dates from the 16th. cent, and has therefore been preserved for further inquiry. Quires are indicated by Hebrew letters and catchwords : vol. I : 36V(359) VI(371). NB : the latter quire originally had 5 sheets.. The outer sheet is added; fols. 360 and 361 both have the number V' 1 ? and an identical text; similarly fol. 370 has the quire indication for the first quire of vol. II, whereas fol. 371 only has the colophon. vol. II: 29V(300) VI(312 = flyleaf III). Except for the signatures of the quires almost no catchwords are used (a few at the end of vol. II). Traces of typographic activity in the shape of offprints of printed letters can be observed e.g. vol. I, 211 a inner margin, vol. II, 129 b outer margin, 216 a upper margin, 248 a lower left hand margin. vol. I has a Hebrew foliation, which is not always visible but on the whole corres ponds with the modern one. This “modern foliation” is executed in an early as well as in a modern hand; fols. 361 - 370 are also numbered 1 - 10 in the early hand. In vol. II the first leaf is numbered 11; quire number and catchwords correspond with fol. 370 of vol. I. All this points to the fact that the person who numbered the leaves preferred the last quire of vol. I to be regarded (and bound?) as the first of vol. II. This accords with the content of the text but, to judge from the structure of this last quire which has an added sheet with a colophon, it was not the original intention of the scribe (see Quires; Schiller-Szinessy, p. 10-11).

For this restoration and its report see Studia Rosenthaliana 7(1973) 262-26S.