The editors have assembled here 55 key articles and notes by the well-known Harvard professor, organizing them under the categories Palaeography, Transjordanian Epigraphy, Hebrew Inscriptions, Aramaic Texts, and Old Canaanite and Phoenician Inscriptions. These essays, scattered in journals and various books, have now been brought together in one volume for easy access and attest to the life-long interest and contributions of one of the best-known epigraphers and palaeographers of the last 50 years.The appearance of Cross' "Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook" is the latest offering in the "Harvard Semitic Studies" series. This work carries on the rigorous standards of scholarship for which the series is known. Offerings such as "The Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls", "Israelite Religion in the Light of Hebrew Inscriptions", and "A Grammar of Akkadian" attest to the outstanding scholarship found in the series.As one of the foremost scholars working in paleography and epigraphy, Cross needs little introduction to the readers of this journal. He is one of the foremost Semiticists of our time...While not everyone (e.g.,
Mendenhall, Helck) will agree with the import of scholarship in this volume, it nonetheless elucidates the history of its subject matter very fittingly...the book is the essential collection of a great many articles that otherwise would have to be gathered by the individual researcher. I highly recommend it for any graduate course in West Semitic paleography or epigraphy. Budding epigraphists cannot afford to be without this summary of a great scholar's work.