Obj. ID: 26345
Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts  Vienna Anatoli's Malmad ha-Talmidim, Spain, 14th century

The main text of Cod. Hebr. 210 is a copy of Malmad ha-Talmidim ("A Goad to Scholars") (fols. 1-160), a collection of homilies on the Bible by Jacob ben Abba Mari ben Samson Anatoli (ca. 1194-1266), divided into 48 chapters according to the pericopes of the Pentateuch. The author was a physician, homilist and translator, who was born in Provence and moved to Naples around 1231, where he edited the Malmad ha-Talmidim[1]. On the last folio of our manuscript (fol. 160v), a different hand copied the Hebrew translation of Megillat Antiochus ("The Scroll of Antiochus"), uncompleted since the last two folios of the manuscript are missing (see: quires).  The Scroll of Antiochus, also known as the "Scroll of the Hasmoneans", written originally in literary Aramaic during the late Talmudic period, is a popular book concerning the wars of the Hasmoneans and of the origin of the feast of Hanukkah.[2]   Its Hebrew version is less common than the Aramaic text. It is assumed that the scroll was read in public during the week of Hanukkah, probably at Minhah of Shabbat Hanukkah, and that this was the custom among Italian Jews, as attested in a decision of Rabbi Isaiah of Trani (Southern Italy, 1200-1260).[3] In Cod. Hebr. 210, the "Scroll of the Hasmoneans" was added in semi-cursive Sephardi script before the annotations to the Malmad HaTalmidim, which were added in Italian cursive script in the margins on fols. 160-160v, by a later hand, which is probably the same as the owner's annotation on fol. 1v.

The codicological features of Hebr. 210 are suitable to the Sephardi range of Hebrew manuscript production: ruling by stylus on the hair side, with pricking absent in the inner margins[4], catchwords for leaves in the lower margins of each verso in the first half of the quire, even though the composition of the quires of 12 leaves is unusual for this area[5].

At the end of the manuscript, within the ending formula "תם החבור ונשלם  תהלה לאל עולם" some letters are emphasized, so that the sum of their numerical value is equivalent to the date 1311 (see: Scribal Note). This date might be the date of the completion of the copying of the manuscript. There are no hints about the scribe's name or the place of production of the manuscript.

The decoration of the ViennaMalmad Ha-Talmidim consists of only two decorative frames, one for the introduction to the treatise on fol. 1, running along the upper and the outer margins, the other for the beginning of the commentary on fol. 6v, running along the upper and the inner margins. The frames are built up of interlaced, twisted, elongated and thin leaves in blue, red, pink and green tempera, which integrate one into the other, sometimes forming heart shapes, and including horns and gold dots.

Stylistic comparisons should be made with another illuminated copy of Malmad ha-Talmidim now housed in Budapest (Budapest, Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Kaufman Collection, ms. A. 278.), copied in Rimini (on the Northern Adriatic coast) by Yekutiel son of Shelomo for Menahem ben Nathan and dated around the 1370's[6]. The decoration program of this manuscript is identical to that of the Vienna Malmad ha-Talmidim, consisting of two foliated frames for the two main sections of the text (fols. 1 and 4v), even though its style is much more elaborated, including animal figures (see the two dragons at the bottom of fol. 1 and the two lions couchants on fol. 4v). The style of the Budapest manuscript may be attributed to a Central Italy school of illumination of the second half of the fourteenth and the very early years of the fifteenth century, which flourished under the influence of great ateliers such as that of Niccolò da Bologna or to the Perugian school of Matteo di Ser Cambio. Prof. Narkiss attributes it to the same workshop that produced the Maimonides' Mishneh Torah now in Jerusalem (JNUL, 4° 1193)[7], a manuscript which was written in a Sephardic area and then decorated in Italy at a second stage. It is evident that the Vienna Malmad ha-Talmidim was not executed by the same hand nor in the same workshop, yet, some elements such as the thin and elongated leaves, the lightness of the composition, the way the leaves interlace one with the other, show a similarity to this style, and can be attributed toCentral Italy around 1400.

In conclusion, Cod. Hebr. 210 was produced by a Sephardi scribe, who adopted codicological features both suitable to Italyand to Sephardi manuscripts. The number emphasized at the end of the manuscript, 1311 might indicate the date of production of the manuscript. On the other hand, the style of the decoration is suitable to the Northern-CentralItalySchoolof illumination of the end of the 14th century. Like the Jerusalem Mishneh Torah mentioned above, Cod. Hebr. 210 can represent a further example of itinerant manuscripts which were brought with their owners from one place to another.

The manuscript was preserved there for a long time, and owned by Immanuel Menahem son of Eliezer of Rossino (near Cuneo) or Rossine (near Mantua) or Rossano (near Parma?) , whose late cursive Italian script of his inscription and annotations to the texts in the margins (see: History), indicate it to be at least of the 16th century.