Hebrew manuscripts as a source of knowledge: a case study of Yemenite Hebrew Manuscripts related to the sciences

The Hebrew Manuscripts Catalogue of the National Library of Israel holds a wealth of information about Jewish history, literature, and culture. However, its complex structure and limited accessibility have resulted in underutilized data. This study aims to harness new digital approaches to unlock the potential of this valuable resource. Specifically, we focus on 275 Yemenite Jewish manuscripts related to ‘sciences’ to explore complex relationships within the data. We began by consolidating metadata from the Hebrew Manuscripts Catalogue, often found scattered within the ‘notes’ field of the records. We supplemented this data with information from linked open data (LOD) entities as well as previous research. This comprehensive approach reveals details about copyists, authors, and owners, even identifying lesser-known figures. Our methodology involved using Nodegoat for data management and visualization. This platform allowed us to create a comprehensive data model for manuscript provenance and explore relationships between objects, transactions, persons, and organizations, along with geographical data.