Obj. ID: 21102
Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts  Fugger's Sefer ha-Zohar, Venice, c.1549

Fugger's Venetian Sefer ha-Zohar | Unknown

*Manuscripts and Printed Books | Mystical and Kabbalistic literature

Unknown

c.1549

Yaakov ben Yosef (scribe)
Scribe 6
Scribe 7
Interpolator 2

Italy | Veneto | Venice
|

Unknown

Unknown |

Unknown

Unknown |

Unknown

Germany | Munich | Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (BSB)
| Cod.hebr. 48 (Steinschneider 1895, No. 48)

Unknown

Zohar (זוהר) up to the middle of pericope Pinhas (fols. 1-267): begins ר' חייא פתח באתי לגני אחותי כלה. 1st ed. Mantua 1558.

None.

None.

Watermarks: A trefoil flower between 'P' and '3' in the outer corner of the folio (32 mm; e.g. fols. 29, 31, 55, 129, 264): similar to Harlfinger 1974-80, Lettres 75 (Venice, 1548, 1550); a trefoil flower between 'N' and 'C' at the outer corner of the folio (26 mm; e.g. fols. 242, 243, 247): unidentified.

Green leather on wooden boards (348 x240 mm); gold-tooled similarly on front and back with a central roundel within an undulating lozenge in a large rectangle, decorated with floral motifs at the centre of each side and at the corners. The front roundel is inscribed קבלה, and below is the letter ה. The back roundel encloses a shield which is inscribed CABALA, and the letter E below. The spine, blind-tooled with hatching, has four hidden cords and head and tail bands. On the edges of the front cover are vestiges of four groups of three plaited leather bands, two on the side and one each on the upper and lower edges, with corresponding holes for four nails on the edges of the back cover (for preserved bands see Cod.hebr. 301). Each group of three bands terminated in a ring intended to hook over the nails in the opposite cover. The leaves are gilt-edged.

 

This binding was made for Fugger by the 'Fugger's Binder' inVenice(Hobson 1999:111-112).

Watermarks of the flyleaves: The head of a bull with a third, central horn, topped by a flower, at the centre of the folio (88 mm; front cover flyleaf): unidentified. 

The decoration is executed by Yaakov ben Yosef:

The title on fol. 1 is written in decorated display script. For similar titles, captions and initial words see:

BSB Cod.hebr. 10, fol. 1; Cod.hebr. 15, fol. 245; Cod.hebr. 17, fol. 169; Cod.hebr. 22, fols. 1, 70, 181;

Cod.hebr. 24, fols. 165, 213; Cod.hebr.32, fol. 1; Cod.hebr. 40, fols. 160, 161, 219, 219v; Cod.hebr. 52,

fol. 1; Cod.hebr. 62, fols. 1, 183.

Owners' inscriptions: None. Inscriptions of librarians and researchers: The numbering of the texts by Fugger’s librarians does not always correspond to their actual number in the manuscript: N0 1:1-267. However in this case they do correspond. Front pastedown, on a paper sticker: contents in Latin in brown ink by Librarian 4: Commentaria super tertio libri Moysi. Front flyleaf, verso: contents in Hebrew in brown ink by Librarian 1a: ספר זוהר דויקרא על דרך הקבלה/ ספר במדבר על דרך הקבלה. Contents in Latin characters in brown ink by Librarian 1a: Sepher Zohar deuaijkra al daeraech hakabala\ Sepher Bemidbar al daeraech hakabala. Contents in Latin in brown ink by Librarian hand 2: Zohar liber cabalisticus commentarium\ in Leuiticum Moses. Exlibris and stamps: Front pastedown: an exlibris of the Bavarian Court and State Library (230 x 155 mm) with the arms of Elector Maximilian I of 1638 (Dressler 1972:B3ab). Old signatures: Front cover flyleaf, verso, in red ink: 2. 41 (Duke's library, Prommer's revision of 1583). Front pastedown in black ink: MS. Hebr. 43. Spine, on sticker in black ink: 107 and Cod.hebr. 48 (current signature). Restoration: 23.12.1957