Antwerp and the Bible

Sessie 'Antwerp and the Bible'
Donderdag 21 juli 2016, 9.30-­‐11.00 am
Elzenveld, Lange Gasthuisstraat 45, 2000 Antwerpen

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Since Antwerp became World Book Capital in 2004, the city actively explores and promotes its history and position as a city of books. And of all the books that found and find a place in Antwerp, the Bible holds a special position. In the sixteenth century, the printing house of Christopher Plantin produced one of the famous Polyglot Bibles (1568–1573). Another illustrious printer, Daniel Bomberg, is an Antwerp native as well, even though he published his Rabbinic Bibles (Mikra’ot Gedolot, 1517, 1525) in Venice. The Museum Plantin-­Moretus, holding the oldest printing presses of the world as well as some copies of the above mentioned multilingual Bible, is expecting a city poem when it will reopen in the fall after renovation. City poems and the office of the poet laureate form another aspect of Antwerp as book city. The poems revive a very old practice of commenting, with performative poetry, on city life. In this special session offered by the Institute of Jewish Studies, University of Antwerp, the Antwerp connection with the (Hebrew) Bible will form the focus of attention, discussing Plantin and Bomberg; the Polyglot, Rabbinic and Hebrew Bible; and extratext, paratext and intertext.

Session program

Welcome
Vivian Liska, Institute of Jewish Studies, University of Antwerp

Venice-­Istanbul-­Antwerp-­Leiden-­London: A Tale of Two Polyglot Bibles
Theodor Dunkelgrün, University of Cambridge

Paratexts from the Earliest Mikra’ot Gedolot
Hans van Nes, Institute of Jewish Studies, University of Antwerp

At Home in Biblical and Antwerp City Poems
Karolien Vermeulen, Institute of Jewish Studies, University of Antwerp