Massorah, or MASORA ('tradition'), a collection of critical notes on the text of the Old Testament, its divisions, accents, vowels, grammatical forms, and letters (see HEBREW LANGUAGE, Vol. V. p. 614). The Massorah, like the Halacha and Haggada, was the work of many ages and centuries, as, indeed, we find in ancient authorities mention made of different systems of accentuation used in Tiberias, Babylon (Assyria), and Palestine. It was in Tiberias also that the Massorah was first committed to writing between the 6th and 9th century A.D. Monographs, memorial verses, and glosses on the margins of the text seem to have been the earliest forms of the written Massorah, which gradually expanded into one of the most elaborate and minute systems, laid down in the
'Great Massorah' (about the 11th century), whence an extract was made known under the name of the 'Small Massorah.' The final arrangement of the Massorah, which was first printed in Bomberg's Rabbinical Bible (Venice, 1525), is due to Jacobben-Chayim of Tunis, and to Felix Pratensis. The language of the Massoretic writers is Chaldee, and the obscure abbreviations, contractions, symbolical signs, &c., with which the work abounds, render its study exceedingly hard. Nor are all its dicta of the same sterling value; they are not only sometimes utterly superfluous, but downright erroneous. See Dr Ginsburg's great work on the Massorah (4 vols. folio, 1880-86).