Obj. ID: 36305
Jewish printed books JMP A Fragment of a Printed Copy of Esther Scrolls with Portrait Medallions, Bratislava (?), 1791
This fragmentarily preserved paper megillah is a copy of the Esther scrolls with portraits medallions (see in the Index for other examples) in which both the border and the Hebrew text of the Book of Esther are printed. Its decoration faithfully follows the prototype except for the final section of the scroll. Here, the benediction recited after the Megillah reading and the liturgical poem for Purim אשר הניא "Asher Heni" are printed in an additional panel placed after the last column of the text (if these two texts were incorporated in the manuscripts featuring the same border, they were inscribed in the last text panel, below the word ברוך printed in the upper margin). The second and third sheets are adorned with the same border and with the same narrative scenes.
In the collection of the Jewish Museum in Prague, another copy of the megillah is stored (see ID 1545) but it bears no signature by Nehemiah Leib Cohen of Pressburg.
The numbers of the text columns do not take into account the missing part of the manuscript.
In the article by Šedinová (see "Bibliography"), the scroll is wrongly listed as Ms 312b.
5 image(s)
sub-set tree:
*Manuscripts and Printed Books | Esther scroll (megillat Esther) | with printed border
*Manuscripts and Printed Books | Esther scroll (megillat Esther) | with benedictions
*Manuscripts and Printed Books | Esther scroll (megillat Esther) | with piyutim
P | Portrait | Portrait medallion
A | Acanthus Leaf
C | Columns
V | Vase
L | Landscape
O | Ornamentation: | Architectonic motif
P | Putto (Putti in Plural)
L | Lion
G | Garland
O | Ornamentation: | Foliate and floral ornaments | Floral motif
H | Human Figure | Bust (Human figure)
H | Heraldic composition | Supporters
O | Ornamentation: | Main text framed
|
The length of the sheets in the scroll: 1) 142 mm, 2) 377 mm, 3) 397 mm, 4) 636 mm.
The scroll is incomplete - it lacks the fragment from the beginning until half of the 7th column of the text. Its remaining part is preserved in very good condition.
The Book of Esther in Hebrew with the benediction recited after the Megillah reading and the liturgical poem Asher Heni
The scroll is formed of 4 sheets containing 14,5 columns of text (one column is not entirely preserved) and an additional benediction panel.
At present, the first sheet contains only 1,5 columns of text. Sheets nos. 2 and 3 comprise 4 columns of the text, and on the last sheet, 5 columns of the text and an additional benediction panel are printed.
Each column includes 25 lines of the text, except for col. 12 with 11 lines divided into two parts and col. 15 with 20 lines of the Megillah and 2 additional lines announcing the final benediction. The last 2 lines are printed in semicursive Hebrew font.
The text printed in the scroll reflects scribal practices of the hand-written scrolls. The letter ת (Es. 9:29) is slightly larger than an average letter in the scroll. Other enlarged and diminished letters are included in col. 12.
The sheets in the scroll are glued.
Below the last column of the text, on the shields held by five protagonists of the Esther story, a Hebrew inscription in a semicursive script is printed. It reads as follows:
הקטן נחמיה ליב כהן מ''ס מפ''ב יוד אדר תקנא''ל
"The humble Nehemiah Leib Cohen, book-seller from Pressburg [Bratislava], on 10th of Adar [5]551 [4.02.1791] according to the minor era". In the original version of the note, the word "book-seller" and city name are written in an abbreviated form. Nehemiah Leib Cohen can be a printer of this megillah and it can be assumed that he was active in Bratislava but no further details are known about him or his letterpress.
Jiřina Šedinová, From the Mss. Collections of the State Jewish Museum in Prague. The Scrolls of Esther, "Judaica Bohemiae" 1979, nr 15/2, 80-83.
Olga Sixtova, O svitku / Form of the Scroll [katalog k výstavě konané v Galerii Roberta Guttmanna Židovského muzea v Praze od 22. června do 26. července 2006], Praha 2006, 40.
http://collections.jewishmuseum.cz/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/221260 (accessed on 22.10.2020).