A MANUSCRIPT COMMENTARY on the HEBREW BIBLE OLD TESTAMENT PSALMS by NOTED AMERICAN THEOLOGIAN and HEBREW SCHOLAR, WALTER ROBERT BETTERIDGE. An incomplete but extensive manuscript work that binds together an 1880 printing of the PSALMS (which have Betteridge's EXTENSIVE MARGIN NOTES ON EVERY PAGE) and OVER 100 PAGES OF MANUSCRIPT COMMENTARY. The handwritten commentary and notes were written by Betteridge ca. 1910-1916. The manuscript was likely being prepared for publication as "Commentary on Old Testament Psalms", but the work was never published because Betteridge died (1916) before it was completed. Nonetheless his wife had his "work in progress" professionally bound and then donated it to the University of Rochester Theological Seminary where her husband had been a Professor of Hebrew in the Old Testament Department.

This professionally bound volume contains the printed work: LIBER PSALMORUM - Textum masoreticum acuratissime expressit... notis criticis confirmavit, by S. BAER, [with] Praefatus est edendi operis adjutor, by FRANCISCUS DELITZSCH. Lipsiae: Ex officina Bernhardi Tauchnitz, 1880. 8vo, 5.5x9 inches. Pagination: [1] f., 82 pp. TOGETHER with over 100 PAGES of INTERLEAVED MANUSCRIPT COMMENTARY NOTES by Bettteridge, interleaved so that every one of the printed pages of the LIBER PSALMORUM has one or more pages of associated handwritten commentary bound-in beside it. There are also manuscript pages at both the front and rear of the book, and clippings from related texts here and there, clippings which Betteridge also annotated.

The printed PSALMS, the 100+ pages of manuscript commentary, and the many other small slips of paper with handwritten notes, are BOUND TOGETHER in recent hardcovers, black moire silk covered boards with leather spine label titled in gilt.

NOTE: Betteridge's handwriting is miniscule with LOTS of words crammed onto every page and is difficult to read without a magnifier, so either have eagle eyes or an illuminated magnifying lamp on standby. Of course by writing in such a small manuscript Betteridge has managed to impart an incredible amount of commentary onto the 100+ handwritten pages. In normal script it would likely be at least 200+ pages.

PROVENANCE: Donated by Mrs. Betteridge to the Rochester Theological Seminary Library. with an institutional bookplate noting this on front pastedown. "Presented to Rochester Theological Seminary Library by MRS. BETTERIDGE / From The Library of WALTER ROBERT BETTERIDGE, D.D. 1863-1916 / On the Faculty of This Seminary in the Department Of Old Testament, 1891-1916".

CONDITION: The recent covers are solid and lovely; internally there is a Seminary bookplate on the front pastedown, as noted above, and a library blind-stamp on the title page; the pages are age toned; all the edges have significantly browned and have varying degrees of chipping and wear, affecting only a bit of marginalia here and there; overall the printing and handwriting is clear and legible (with magnification); all pages, manuscript and printed, are tightly bound. A solid copy.

A UNIQUE WORK that represents an American theological scholar's lifetime of studying and teaching Hebrew and the Old Testament. Deserving of close examination.

About PROFESSOR WALTER ROBERT BETTERIDGE, D.D. (from various Internet sources):

******Walter Robert Betteridge, b.1863 d.1916, was an American theologian, professor, and Bible scholar. He was a Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature at the University of Rochester from 1891 until his death.

Author of "Commentary on Exodus" American Baptist Publication Society, 1914, and numerous articles including "The Accuracy of the Authorized Version of the Old Testament" 1911, and "Commentary on Deuteronomy", 1915.

Walter Robert Betteridge is listed in Volume 8, page 184 of "Who's Who in America", published by A.N. Marquis, 1914.******