Img. ID: 18598
  Illuminated Manuscripts  

Back to the object

Vol. II, fols. 279v-288: The twelve signs of the zodiac are each depicted within a medallion in the margins of twelve of the eighteen pages (fols. 280v, 281, 281v, 282v, 283v, 284, 285, 285v, 286v, 287, 287v, 288). They illustrate the corresponding Zodiac signs mentioned in the piyyut of Eleazar haKaliri for the prayer of rain  יפתח ארץ לישע (Let the earth open; Davidson, Thesaurus, י 3466) recited on Sukkot. The medallions are framed by a coloured or gold band surrounded by a lace-like wreath or radiating gold dots. The backgrounds are blue, red or tooled gold with all-over geometrical patterns (see Remarks). 

II:284 (diameter: c.50 mm):

Virgo (Elul) is depicted as a young woman with plaited hair tied on top, wearing a sleeveless green gown over a red robe on a gold ground tooled with lozenges containing circles within a colourful framed medallion. Surrounding it is a floral lace pattern in red and blue. The woman illustrates the adjacent text in the piyyut: להעליץ בתולה (To rejoice the virgin).