#hebrew manuscript

[hiddurmitzvah]

Detail of a painting of a sukkah. Image taken from f. 316v of Forli Siddur. 1383, Italian rite from the The British Library.

[girlactionfigure]

[medieval-elephants]

Unicorns and goats and elephants, oh my! This elephant, in the center of a star of David, appears at the beginning of the Book of Deuteronomy (Devarim) in a highly illuminated copy of the Pentateuch made somewhere in the Holy Roman Empire between about 1300 and 1325.

Some scholars have argued that the artists of this manuscript derived the elephant symbol largely from the influence of Christian artists and writers (who in turn derived much of the symbolism from Late Antique and ancient writers). There are dragons higher up on the page, and the (satanic) dragon fighting the (steadfast and loving) elephant was a major theme in Christian bestiaries, patristics, and other works. However, in "The Elephant and the Law", Marc Michael Epstein argues that there were subtler meanings and that elephants had long-standing symbolism in Jewish art, too. (He points out that elephants do appear in a mosaic on a floor of a synagogue from about 530 AD).

Today, this manuscript is known as the "Duke of Sussex Pentateuch" because it was once owned by Augustus, Duke of Sussex, one of the sons of King George III and Queen Charlotte (of Bridgerton fame).

Date: 1300-1325 Origin: Holy Roman Empire Now British Library, Add MS 15282, f. 238r

[medieval-unicorns]

Song and dance

The word shir (song) flanked by a unicorn and a bear, from the beginning of the Song of Songs in an early 14th-century Pentateuch. Today, this manuscript is known as the Duke of Sussex’s Pentateuch after a later owner.

Date: c. 1300-1325 Origin: Holy Roman Empire? Now British Library, Add MS 15282, f. 296v

[arthistoryanimalia]

More art for #LunarNewYear #YearOfTheRabbit:

rabbits in the marginalia of a medieval Italian Pentateuch - BL Add MS 15423, Florence, 1441-1467 CE, in Hebrew, f. 7r, 41v, 140v. [British Library]

[upennmanuscripts]

LJS 468 - [Meḳitse nirdamim]

This manuscript features a collection of prescriptions from the 14th-century physician Meir ben Solomon Alguadez and one of his students. It was originally written in Spanish, in the Hebrew translation of Joseph ha-Kohen completed in 1546, also with Latin translations. This exemplar - with Hebrew written in Sephardic semi-cursive and Latin in humanistic cursive - was written in Italy in the 16th century. 

Click here for additional information - or here for the facsimile. 

[girlactionfigure]

[upennmanuscripts]

LJS 469 - [Sefer ha-seder ha-ḳaṭan]

This manuscript features some copies of letters of the Finzi family, including reference to Abraham Cohen or Abraham Arie ben Benjamin Portaleone, possibly also known as Abraham ben David Portaleone, a famous physician of Mantua. Then, there are two pages of homiletical comments on the Biblical story of Joseph, and an anonymous translation from Arabic into Hebrew of an abridgment of Avicenna's Qānūn fī al-ṭibb (Canon), which begins with a list of human limbs and their qualities and proceeds to the middle of the third chapter. It was written in Italy, around the year 1490 CE.

Are you curious? Click here for the facsimile, or here for further information.