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Detailed record for Oriental 5024

Author Isaiah of Trani the Younger
Title Decisions of Isaiah of Trani the Younger (Pisqei Rabbi Yeshayah Aharon)
Origin Italy, Central (Bologna or Rimini)
Date 1374
Language Hebrew
Script Italian semi-cursive script, unpunctuated
Scribe Jekuthiel ben Solomon of Bologna
Decoration 14 textual illustrations in the margin or included into the foliate scroll, in colours and gold (ff. 19, 40v, 56, 64v, 68v, 70v, 78, 79v, 85, 176, 177, 184v, 225v, 241). 3 foliate borders with leaves forming medallions inhabited by animals and birds, in colours and gold (ff. 3v, 97v, 171). Numerous decorated initial-word panels accompanied with foliate scrolls spreading to the margins, sometimes inhabited by animals or birds, in colours and gold. Maniculae (e.g., ff. 20, 80v).
Dimensions in mm 400 x 250 (265 x 180)
Official foliation ff. 298 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end)
Collation 31 quires: i2 (ff. 1-2), ii10 (ff. 3-12), iii10 (ff. 13-22), iv10 (ff. 23-32), v10 (ff. 33-42), vi10 (ff. 43-52), vii10 (ff. 53-62), viii10 (ff. 63-72), ix10 (ff. 73-82), x10 (ff. 83-92), xi10 (ff. 93-102), xii10 (ff. 103-112), xiii10 (ff. 113-122), xiv10 (ff. 123-132), xv10 (ff. 133-142), xvi10 (ff. 143-152), xvii10 (ff. 153-162), xviii8 (ff. 163-170), xix10 (ff. 171-180), xx10 (ff. 181-190), xxi10 (ff. 191-200), xxii10 (ff. 201-210), xxiii10 (ff. 211-220), xxiv10 (ff. 221-230), xxv10 (ff. 231-240), xxvi10 (ff. 241-250), xxvii10 (ff. 251-260), xxviii10 (ff. 261-270), xxix10 (ff. 271-280), xxx10 (ff. 281-290), xxxi8 (ff. 291-298). Catchwords.
Form Parchment codex
Binding BM/BL in-house
Provenance Jekuthiel ben Solomon, scribe: inscribed with his name in the colophon, 28 Sivan [5]134 [1374] (f. 298v); Jekuthiel is marked off in the initial letters of the lines (f. 84v).
Menahem ben Nathan, first owner: inscribed with his name in the colophon, 28 Sivan [5]134 [1374] (f. 298v).
Hananel Menahem ben Jehiel sold to Moses ben Joseph: inscribed with their name in a purchase note, 2 December, [5]192 [1432] (f. 2, upside down).
Solomon ben Simeon: inscribed with his name as witness in a purchase note, 2 December, [5]192 [1432] (f. 2).
Yom Tov ben Isaac: inscribed with his name as witness in a purchase note, 2 December, [5]192 [1432] (f. 2).
David of Ventura: a list of manuscripts and printed books owned by him, 1501 (ff. 1-2).
Jehuda Zerahiah Azulai: inscribed with his name, 16th century (ff. 1, 20).
Joseph Jehuda ben Jehuda Zerahiah Azulai: inscribed with his name, 16th century (f. 1).
Samuel ben Isaac Azariel of Lavolta: inscribed with his name as a missing person, August 1535 (f. 2v).
Menahem of Lavolta, Samuel’s brother: inscribed with his name, August 1535 (f. 2v).
Moses of Lavolta ben Isaac, owner: sold to Joseph ben Solomon Foa/Puah: purchase note, 17 November, 1542 (f. 3).
Latin inscription, 1556 (f. 3).
Laurentius Franguellus, censor: inscribed with his name, 1575 (f. 2); see William Popper, The Censorship of Hebrew Books (New York: KTAV Publishing House, 1969), appendix § 105-110.
Luigi da Bologna, censor: inscribed with his name, 1600 (f. 298v).
Aaron Emmanuel Suffrin: purchased by the British Museum from him on 17 June 1896 (f. [299v]).
Notes Pricking and ruling are visible. Words deleted (e. g., ff. 9, 15, 17v, 36, 47, 70v, 82v, 145v, 160, 249v, 269). Rewritten parts (e. g., ff. 4, 139v, 143v, 266). According to Bezalel Narkiss, the codex was produced in Bologna, and the style of its illumination is similar to the school of Niccolo di Giacomo da Bologna (Narkiss, 1984, p. 58). Metzger argues that the manuscript was written in Rimini (Metzger, 1991, pp. 141-142, n. 69).
Select bibliography Aaron Freimann, 'Jewish Scribes in Medieval Italy', in Alexander Marx Jubilee Volume (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1950), pp. 231-342 (no. 200a).

George Margoliouth, Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1899-1935; vols I-III repr. 1965); IV, Introduction, Indexes, ed. by Jacob Leveen (London: British Museum, 1977), II, no. 523.

Joseph Gutmann, Hebrew Manuscript Painting (New York: Braziller, 1978), p. 29.

Bezalel Narkiss, Kitvei yad ivriyim metzuyarim (Jerusalem: Keter, 1984), pp. 58-59.

Mortara Luisa Ottolenghi, “Manoscritti Emiliagno-Romagnoli del XIV-XV secolo. Un punto d’Incontro tra miniatori cristiani ed ebrei?” in Atti del terzo convegno tenuto a Idice, Bologna, nei giorni 9-11 novembre 1982 Associazione italiana per lo studio del giudaismo. Convegno (3rd: 1982: Idice, Italy), (Roma: Carucci, 1985), pp. 103-13 (pp. 106-8).

Mendel Metzger, 'Two Centuries (13th-14th) of Hebrew Manuscript Ilumination in Italy', in Die Juden in ihrer Mittelalterlichen Umwelt eds. by Alfred Ebenbauer and Klaus Zatloukal (Vienna: Böhnlau Verlag, 1991), pp. 131-50 (p. 142).

Therese and Mendel Metzger, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages: Illuminated Hebrew Manuscripts of the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth Centuries (New York: Alpine Fine Arts Collection, 1982), p. 304.

Luisa Mortara-Ottolenghi, 'Scribes, Patrons and Artists of Italian Illuminated Manuscripts in Hebrew' Jewish Art, 19 (1993/1994), 86-97 (pp. 88-89).

Ilana Tahan, Hebrew Manuscripts: The Power of Script and Image (London, British Library, 2007), pp. 110-11.


Images
* * *
 
Initial-word panel and foliate border

f. 3v
Initial-word panel and foliate border		 Inhabited border

f. 3v
Inhabited border		 Inhabited border

f. 3v
Inhabited border
 
Emblem of a lion and a rooster

f. 3v
Emblem of a lion and a rooster		 Decorated initial-word panel

f. 9
Decorated initial-word panel		 Hanukkah lamp

f. 19
Hanukkah lamp
 
Hanukkah lamp

f. 19
Hanukkah lamp		 Eruv

f. 40v
Eruv		 Unleavened bread

f. 56
Unleavened bread
 
Inhabited foliate border

f. 56
Inhabited foliate border		 Unleavened bread

f. 56
Unleavened bread		 Stoning

f. 64v
Stoning
 
Sukkot

f. 70v
Sukkot		 Man with lulav and etrog

f. 70v
Man with lulav and etrog		 Purim

f. 79v
Purim
 
Man with megillah

f. 79v
Man with megillah		 Watering

f. 85
Watering		 Spread eagle

f. 91
Spread eagle
 
Inhabited foliate border

f. 97v
Inhabited foliate border		 Inhabited border

f. 97v
Inhabited border		 Detail

f. 97v
Detail
 
Inhabited border

f. 97v
Inhabited border		 Decorated initial-word panel

f. 132v
Decorated initial-word panel		 Dog attacking a deer

f. 171
Dog attacking a deer
 
Initial-word panel and inhabited border

f. 171
Initial-word panel and inhabited border		 Detail of a page: miniature of a dog attacking a deer in ...

f. 171
Detail of a page: miniature of a dog attacking a deer in ...		 Bulls

f. 176
Bulls
 
Cattle

f. 177
Cattle		 Carpenters

f. 184v
Carpenters		 Selling a ship

f. 225v
Selling a ship
 
Sanhedrin

f. 241
Sanhedrin		 Decorated initial-word panel

f. 258
Decorated initial-word panel
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