Kennicott, Benjamin. The State of the Printed Hebrew Text of the Old Testament Considered. Dissertation the Second.

Benjamin Kennicott (1718-1783) an English Hebraist, published his Vetus Testamentum (1776-80) based on the variants he found in old Hebrew manuscripts. This was the first systematic examination clearly demonstrating the practical uniformity of the Masoretic text. Preliminary to the actual edition, Kennicott printed reports on the various manuscripts under examination: The Ten Annual Accounts of the Collation of Hebrew MSS of the Old Testament, Begun in 1760 and Completed in 1769 (Oxford, 1770) (See Kestenbaum & Company Auction 37, Lot 34). The present volume may be viewed as Kennicott's prolegomenon to his edition of the Bible, in which he attempts to prove the importance and necessity of collating all the Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament. Appended, is a list of all the manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible found in England, arranged according to the Books of the Bible. See JE, Vol. VII, p. 467.