“This book tells the fascinating story of the Lailashi Codex, the priceless medieval Hebrew Masoretic Pentateuch, from its earliest known history as the prized possession of the Jews of Lailashi (Georgia) to its present place in the National Manuscript Centre of Tbilisi, after miraculously surviving the vagaries of Soviet appropriation. Dr Thea Gomelauri’s meticulous description of the manuscript gives a wealth of information on the codicology of the codex and its scribal peculiarities, including the palaeographical signs used to differentiate between the weekly readings of the Torah.”
 — Professor Anna Sapir Abulafia FBA, Professor Emerita of the Study of the Abrahamic Religions, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford, UK

“Dr Gomelauri restores the ‘biography’ of the Lailashi Codex based on the documentary evidence since its earliest reference to the present day. She presents previously unknown materials about the codex’s vicissitudes during the Soviet period, including its confiscation by the communists in 1939, and the transfer to the Jewish Historic-Ethnographic Museum in Tbilisi. This pioneering study of Dr Gomelauri contributes to several disciplines, including the Transmission of the Hebrew Bible, Jewish Scribal Practices, Textual Criticism, Masoretic Studies, Manuscript Studies, History and Culture of Georgian Jewry, Jewish Illuminated Art, etc. This book opens a venue for further interdisciplinary research. Dr Gomelauri abstains from making ultimate judgments about the provenance of the Lailashi Codex until the conclusion of full-scale research.” (Published in Ancient Jew Review. The full review is available here).
 — Professor Golda Akhiezer, Department of Jewish History, Ariel University, Israel

“The calligraphy of the Lailashi Codex is done in a beautiful hand, slowly and carefully, with meticulously formed letters in fine, consistently dark ink. I’m fascinated by the little painting which divides the Book of Exodus from the Book of Leviticus. To my eye, the shape of this little painting looks like an allusion to either a Temple or the classic four-horned altar. I suspect this artist knew the Talmudic descriptions of the decorations, including the inlaid floors, of the Temple, and attempted to reproduce them as he introduced the biblical book focused on Levitical law. The beautiful leaves of the Lailashi Codex show the careful and clear square calligraphy, extensive border micrography, likely of the Masoretic notes and mark the division between the books with a geometric design in micrography and gold, closely related to imagery in the Codex Leningradensis. Let this be the beginning of far greater Western familiarity with this beautiful Crown of the Georgian Jews.” (Extract from a Panel Presentation).
— Debra Band, Visual artist, Calligrapher, Illuminator, and Senior Fellow at the Oxford Interfaith Forum

“One hundred and fifty years after the first news on the manuscript, Dr Thea Gomelauri’s Lailashi Codex presents the first and long-awaited study of one of the most ancient Hebrew Pentateuch, together with the Sassoon and Leningrad Codices. The Lailashi Codex is an invaluable treasure both as a textual witness of the Masoretic Tradition of the Hebrew Bible, and as an artefact for its breathtaking micrography. Nevertheless, it had been completely overlooked by scholars due to the difficulties in reaching the text in Georgia, and because of the lack of any study or edition. Dr Gomelauri’s work fills that void. In addition, and for the first time, the very significant missing leaves of the manuscript, hosted in Israel, are reintegrated into its original milieu. Waiting for a digital or commercial facsimile edition, Dr Thea Gomelauri’s book will become an indispensable tool for the study of the Hebrew Bible.”
 — Reverend Professor Ignacio Carbajosa, Professor of Old Testament, San Dámaso Ecclesiastical University, Madrid, Spain

“The Lailashi Codex is a great cultural treasure, and Dr Gomelauri’s book rectifies the history of its neglect. I learned something new on practically every page. A real ‘highlight’ was learning how biblical manuscripts were, in the eyes of the Communists, ‘sources of deceit and fleecing of the working class.’ The story of recovering Shota Rustaveli’s Jerusalem fresco, and the role the Lailashi codex played in it, is terrific. Dr Gomelauri would make a fine investigative journalist.”
— Professor Alan Cooper, Elaine Ravich Professor of Jewish Studies, Chancellor Emeritus of Jewish Theological Seminary, NY, USA

“In her analysis, Dr Gomelauri elucidates the Lailashi Codex‘s multifaceted importance, demonstrating its value beyond its liturgical function as a testament to the historical interconnection of Georgian and Jewish cultural traditions. The book offers a captivating historical narrative, uncovers the latest information about its missing sections, and situates the manuscript within its wider cultural and religious framework. By illuminating the Codex’s tumultuous history, the author ensures that this priceless piece of Georgian-Jewish heritage is acknowledged and valued by future generations. The work will prove to be an invaluable resource for scholars in Jewish Studies, Masoretic Studies, Medieval History, Manuscript Studies, and related fields, offering new avenues for exploration and scholarly inquiry.”
 — Professor Teófilo Correa, Chair of Department for Biblical Studies, Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies (AIIAS), Philippines

“Dr Thea Gomelauri recounts the still-unfolding drama of an extraordinary manuscript and of those who have cherished it through many generations, as well as of those who have despised or tried to profit from it. Part scribal analysis, part history, compellingly told, this volume is eye-opening for both experts and readers newly introduced to the marvelous exactitude with which biblical manuscripts are produced and the devotion that ensures their preservation.”
— Professor Ellen Davis, Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology, Duke Divinity School, Duke University, USA

“‘This is an eye-opening work. The Masoretic Text, the text curated by the Masoretes for more or less a millennium, is the starting point for any study of the Hebrew Scriptures, and the Dead Sea Scrolls have confirmed that their text is a precious testimony to the care with which they copied the Scriptures over the centuries. The emergence into Western European awareness of such a careful copy of this text that looks as if it might be as old as the tenth or eleventh century and thus be at least as old as our standard versions is therefore an exciting moment. And the tale about it that Dr Thea Gomelauri tells is a fascinating one.”
— Reverend Professor John Goldingay, DD, Senior Professor of Old Testament and David Allan Hurbbard Professor Emeritus of Old Testament, Fuller Theological Seminary. Oxford, UK

“This is a fascinating study and beautiful work on one of the most valuable discoveries in biblical scholarships and Jewish history that brings together Georgian Republic Jewish History with the history of the Lailashi Codex. I’ve learned a lot about the special features of the manuscript and Georgian Jewry.”
— Haim Gottschalk, Judaica Librarian for the Asian and Middle Eastern Division, Library of Congress, USA

“This book introduces readers to one of the most important and understudied Masoretic Torah manuscripts as well as to the Georgian Jewish community who preserved and treasured this sacred text for centuries and from whom the Soviet communists expropriated it. While scholars who specialize in the textual history of the Bible will benefit greatly from Dr Thea Gomelauri’s detailed analyses of the manuscript and its unusual features, anyone interested in Biblical Studies or in the broader sweep of Jewish history will learn much from the stories and history surrounding the Lailashi Codex and its rediscovery.”
— Professor Joel Kaminsky, Morningstar Professor of Jewish Studies and Professor of Biblical Literature, Smith College, USA

“The two parts of the book are each fascinating in different ways. The cultural history told in Part 1 opens up an entire area of Jewish history – the intellectual history of Lailashi and the surrounding Georgian regions – that is underappreciated and deserves more study. The codex studied by Dr Thea Gomelauri makes it clear that this was no backwater, though: it is a beautiful manuscript written to exacting standards. Part 2 is a meticulous analysis of the text itself, which documents numerous interesting features and adds data to many topics of inquiry into the traditions and history of the manuscript. The book includes three leaves housed in the National Library of Israel and identified recently by Joseph Ginsberg who is given the space to tell the story of the discovery from his own perspective and add a chapter of analytical work, as well. Kudos to Dr Gomelauri on such excellent work!”
— Professor Aaron Koller, Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Yeshiva University, NY, USA

“Dr Gomelauri’s work on the Lailashi Codex charts a journey through ten centuries of history in a way that is romantic and engaging to a modern reader. The fidelity and accuracy with which the scribes transmitted the sacred texts across countries and across centuries are astonishing. In pursuit of her subject, Dr Gomelauri is no less meticulous than the scribes she studies, and she makes the distant past accessible, through story-telling and human sympathy, to the ordinary reader in the present day. Her work deepens and extends our understanding of the work of the mediaeval inheritors of the biblical texts.”
— Peter Oppenheimer, Emeritus Governor and former President of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Emeritus Fellow of Christ Church College, University of Oxford, UK

“We knew nothing about this manuscript beyond its name – for the sole reason that this singular treasure has been housed in Georgia apparently for one millennium. All that changes now with this engaging and informative description of the Lailashi Codex from the pen of Thea Gomelauri: engaging as she tells the story of the manuscript, informative as she details its scribal features. May this book convert the Lailashi Codex from the “best-kept secret [in] biblical scholarship” (in the words of the author) to an object of study for generations to come.”
— Professor Gary A. Rendsburg, Blanche and Irving Laurie Chair in Jewish History, Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies, Rutgers University, USA

“This is a fascinating, the first full-length introduction to a little-known but exceptional early medieval Hebrew manuscript of the Torah, preserved by Georgian Jews. Dr Thea Gomelauri recounts its trials and tribulations, and provides a detailed description of the nature of its scribal features within the Masoretic tradition contributing to the knowledge of the history, and development of Jewish scribal practices.”
— Professor Alison Salvesen, Professor of Early Judaism and Christianity, and Supernumerary Fellow of Mansfield College, University of Oxford

“This volume tells us two amazing stories. First is the account of the miraculous survival of this ancient manuscript of the Torah in the Georgian Jewish community, and then through the vicissitudes of communist rule. Then we read the detailed account of the nature of the text, its Masoretic annotations, and the codicological features of this amazingly beautiful Codex. Dr Thea Gomelauri is to be congratulated for writing the great book and including contribution by Joseph Ginsberg. This study certainly increases our knowledge of the history of the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible.”
— Professor Lawrence H. Schiffman, Global Distinguished Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University, USA

“I could hardly be more thrilled to see such an extraordinary volume dedicated to this most extraordinary object among the spectacular artefacts that have been produced in Georgia over the millennia. The Lailashi Codex, together with other facets of Georgian Jewish history and material culture, offers great insights into the unique position of Jews in this country situated between the Christian and Muslim worlds. The organisation of the volume by Dr Thea Gomelauri is admirable and more than praiseworthy. This magnificent presentation is a special treat for the worlds of scholars and devotees who can admire and re-explore it for many generations to come.”
— Professor Ori Z. Soltes, Professor of the Teaching of Jewish Civilization, Center for Jewish Civilization, Georgetown University, USA

“The Lailashi Codex is a truly remarkable Hebrew Bible manuscript, not only for its intrinsic value as a Bible but also for its life story and career as a book. The total story is fascinating and riveting.”
— Professor David Stern, Harry Starr Professor of Classical and Modern Hebrew and Jewish Literature, Professor of Comparative Literature at the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Department, Harvard University, USA

“This book introduces the fascinating but little-known world of the ancient Eastern Pentateuch owned by the small Jewish Community in Lailashi village (Western Georgia), which was inaccessible to biblical world until now. Dr Thea Gomelauri’s study reveals the exquisite features of the Lailashi Codex which exhibits affinity to the most important codices of the tenth–eleventh centuries. This lavishly illustrated ancient witness to the Jewish scribal traditions known as vavei ha’aamudim, and b’yah sh’mo will inspire further research, and enrich our knowledge about early biblical codices, and their extraordinary scribes.”
— Michal Sternthal, Head of the Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts Section, Center for Jewish Art, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel