[Megilat Ester] ... [etc.].

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Contributor:

Schoenberg, Lawrence J., former owner.

Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Standardized Title:

Bible. Esther. Hebrew. 14uu.

Language:

Hebrew

Genre:

codices (bound manuscripts)

excerpts

poems

Manuscripts, Hebrew -- 15th century.

Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Penn Provenance:

Sold at auction at Swann Galleries, 11 December 1988, lot 206A, to Lawrence J. Schoenberg.

Gift of Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2010.

Physical Description:

16 leaves : parchment ; 87 x 65 (53 x 40) mm

Place of Publication:

[Italy], [14--]

Language Note:

Hebrew.

Summary:

The Book of Esther written on 3 gatherings removed from a miscellany. The first leaf of the first gathering begins with the last 7 verses of the Book of Lamentations, the work that preceded the Book of Esther in the miscellany. The last leaf of the last gathering has been replaced by an added leaf on which are written 2 piyutim or liturgical poems (Asher heni, whose beginning is not on the leaf, and Shoshanat Yaʻaḳov) used at Purim along with the Book of Esther.

Notes:

Ms. codex.

Title supplied by cataloger.

Collation: Parchment, 16; 1⁸ 2-3⁴.

Layout: Written in 16 long lines.

Script: Written in northern Italian semi-cursive script with vowel points and cantillation marks (f. 1-15); poems on added leaf at end written in Italian semi-cursive rabbinic script.

Decoration: Modern (after 1969) illuminated foliate borders inhabited by birds and other creatures (f. 1-15). The motifs come from three distinct medieval Hebrew manuscripts which were reproduced in facsimile in Bezalel Narkiss, Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts (Jerusalem : Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1969), plates 13, 30, and 44 (Evelyn Cohen).

Binding: Early parchment over pasteboards.

Origin: Written in northern Italy in the 15th century.

Local Notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 144 (LJS 41).

Cited as:

Megilat Ester (LJS 41). Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.

Contains:

Asher heni.

Shoshanat Yaʻaḳov.

OCLC:

801817585

Online:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page