Obj. ID: 23161
Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts Liturgical Pentateuch, Germany, 14th-15th c.
This liturgical manuscript of the 14th -15th century copied in Ashkenaz by a single scribe, used simple scribal decoration for catchwords and words of the last lines.
It is highly important for its original binding.
The manuscript was owned by different owners, one of them is Asher Moshe Shamash Ha-Shem. Jacob bar Asher Moshe Shamash Ha-Shem, probably the son of the owner of Cod. hebr. 13, who owned another manuscript from Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (hebr. 15), as it is written on fol. 1v. This codex is also liturgical Pentateuch done in Ashkenaz in the 14th century.
sub-set tree:
: Parchment, 198 or 200 leaves.
Measurements
Full page: 360 x 280 mm
|
Text space: ? x ? mm |
Scribes
The manuscript is written by a single scribe.
Columns
The text is written in two columns, except for the first song of Moses (fols. 44-44v), the second song of Moses (fols. 120-121). The Song of Devorah (fols. 145v-146v) and Song of David (fols. 169v-170), all written in a brickwork pattern.
Script
The text is written in square Ashkenazi script in ?
Number of lines
The text is written in 28 lines per page.
Ruling
Stylus? on ? side:
29 lines per page (the last line is empty).
Pricking
The pricking is situated on the outer and inner margins. On the outer margins (only?) double pricks for special lines are found. Two lines (14th and 15th) in the middle of the leaves are double-pricked and one line (27) at the lower part is double pricked. At the upper part? These lines are drawn right across the width of the sheet?
This practice is common in Ashkenaz as early as the time of the earliest manuscripts (Beit-Arié, Codicology, p. 71).
Quires
25 quires of 8 leaves each. First and last leaves are not numbered and are past to the inner side of the binding like paste down.
The hair and flesh sides of the parchment are hardly discernable.
Catchwords
The catchwords are written in the lower left hand corner on the final verso of each quire, except for quire XVIII. Mostly, they are horizontal and are surrounded by decoration. The catchwords of the XIII and XVII quires (fols. 103 and 135) are vertical.
Hebrew numeration
None
Blank leaves
None
Late Gothic leather binding was made around 1400 (?). Brown leather is attached to the wooden cover with edges, which were cut irregularly.
The front cover is divided into two horizontal fields: in the upper field there is the scene of a hunt composed of four riders, who convey falcons. The riders are dressed according to the fashion of the period (ca. 1400); three riders at the front are with animal's and bird's heads. The free area inside the scene (?) contains five depictions of animals (dog, donkey and cat???). The lower field is decorated with two pairs of dragons, standing on opposite the other. Their tails and tongues end with foliage.
The back cover is undecorated. There are traces of five hexagonal concave objects, of two long closures, and of chain's holdfast. Nails on the edges were preserved. In 1918 the binding was restored.
- Initial word decorated with wriggle line appears on fol. 149.
- Decorated catchwords are mostly embellished with frames and floral motifs (e.g. fols. 15v, 31v).
- A few parashah signs are decorated with v-shaped strokes (e.g. fol. 33v).
- On the lower margins, decorative curls embellish the bottom of some letters of the last text's line (e.g. fol. 8). Sometimes, they continue the descenders of the letters, but in other cases, they have no connection to the letters, and they appear as a pair, one near the other (e.g. fol. 18).
- The text at the end of each book of the Pentateuch, the end of the Five Scrolls, and the end of the Haftarot is shaped in geometrical form (e.g. fol. 35v).