Obj. ID: 53783
Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts Chamishah Chumshei Torah, Yemen, circa 1500
The following description was prepared by William Gross:
Exquisite calligraphy and an early date particularly distinguish this example of Yemenite Bible illumination. Its colorful title page finds a parallel in another Yemenite manuscript in the National Library in Jerusalem that confirms the early dating to before the turn of the 15th century. Some pages contain very delicate decorations and all pages have a running design of the Massorah (a technical compilation for assuring the accurate transmission of the biblical texts) around the text. Both of these characteristics are seen in the displayed page. Typical of oriental manuscript illumination is the complete absence of textual illustration and of human figures.
The Pentateuch was the most popular part of the Yemenite Bible, and was often prepared by the scribe in an independent volume such as this one. The pages’ square, bold lettering is typical of Yemenite script , which developed in its own way and is unlike any other Hebrew script from around the world. Because there were no printing presses in Yemen, and its distance and isolation made communication with other countries relatively difficult, original manuscripts and the few printed books imported were copied by hand time after time. Manuscripts represented the overwhelming means of transmitting text in Jewish Yemen.
The Yemenite school of illumination developed in the 15th C and flourished. It followed in the footsteps of Hebrew manuscript illumination in the Orient, examples of which survive from the 9th-13th centuries, and are the earliest Hebrew manuscript illuminations known. By the time the Yemenite school emerged, its Palestinian and Syrian predecessors had already declined.
149 pp.
