first two editions of Rudolf Kittel’s Biblia Hebraica (1905, 1913) and the Letteris edition of the British and Foreign Bible Society (1852 and reprints to the 1950s) were still based on this foundation. In subsequent editions the aim has still been to present the Ben Asher text (on divergent, less influential medieval texts see below), but the policy has been to give pride of place to manuscripts from the tenth or eleventh century which derive either from the Ben Asher family itself or from a scribe