the Jewish scholars of the sixth to ninth centuries A.D. who compiled the Masorah, a body of notes on the textual traditions surrounding Scripture. In particular, the Masoretes devised vowel signs with which to vocalize the Bible's consonantal text.
Schools of scholars in Palestine and Babylonia, who, from the seventh through the tenth centuries, studied Masorah and established the authoritative vocalization, punctuation, cantillation, and divisions of the Bible.