Obj. ID: 23165
Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts  Vienna Goralot ha-Hol, Amsterdam, 1730

The script and decoration of Goralot ha-Hol were executed by the scribe David Hofshi (David Franco Mendes), as he identified himself in the preface of the scribe (fol. 2). As he states in the title page he copied this manuscript in Amsterdam in 1730 (fol. 1). David Franco Mendes was a Hebrew poet, scholar, translator and accomplished scribe of the early Haskalah period who was born in 1713 in an important Portuguese family in Amsterdam and died there in 1792. He was a prolific writer and among his dramas, his best-known work is Gemol Atalyah (Amsterdam 1770). He was also considered an outstanding Talmudic scholar and often handed down halakhic decisions. The bulk of his writings are still in manuscripts.

Four other copies of Goralot ha-Hol by the same scribe are known to us between 1730 to 1788. One of them was copied in the same year, 1730 (Amsterdam, Portuguese Israelitische Seminarium Ets Haim47 A 27). Others are from 1741, (Moscow, Russian State Library, Ms. Guenzburg 1066), 1778 (Paris, Alliance Israélite Universelle H162 A) and the last from 1788 (Amsterdam, Portuguese Israelitische Seminarium Ets Haim47 A 17). All these manuscripts, including the Vienna one, are similarly decorated by Franco Mendes himself.

Thus, Vienna and Amsterdam(Ets Haim 47 A27) manuscripts copied in 1730 are the earliest manuscripts of the Goralot ha-Hol made by David Franco Mendes. The Vienna manuscript seems to be a bit earlier than the Amsterdam one since the Amsterdam manuscript is closer to the later variants of this text by David Franco Mendes. Some of the additions of Franco Mendes, which were mostly taken from the Kuzari of Yehuda Halevi (see: Scribal Notes, above), were included as an integral part of the text in the Amsterdam manuscript, as well as in the later copies. Notwithstanding, it does not seem that Franco Mendes copied the Amsterdam manuscript from the Vienna manuscript because both texts are quite different. Probably, the Vienna text was the model for the Amsterdam one, but Franco Mendes felt free to add and omit pieces, as well as to change words/ sentences and their order.       

Goralot ha-Hol (literally: fates of the sand) is a text dealing with a system of divination known in the West as Geomancy. Geomancy appears to be a distinctly Islamic development which later reached the Byzantine and Latin worlds.[2] The information on geomancy in Islamic treatises began to appear from 7th century onwards. It seems that originally geomantic device was a board lightly covered with sand in which one could mark down the geomantic figures and then erase them by smoothing over the sand or by covering it with additional dust,[3] until paper and ink became available to replace it (Savage-Smith, Islamic Geomancy, p. 9). This device can explain the name of the system "geomancy" (sand's divination) which was translated into Hebrew almost literally.

Hebrew sources for the text of Goralot ha-Hol originate in Abraham Ibn Ezra’s translation (middle of the 12th century) of a treatise on geomancy ("Sefer ha-Goralot") in Arabic preserved in several manuscripts. Shmuel ben Shlomo Ibn Hasdai composed another version of Goralot ha-Hol, called "Decipherer of the Hidden" (14th century (?)) in which he mentioned Ibn Ezra. In fact, all later variations of this text, among them those of Franco Mendes, are based on the Ibn Ezra and Ibn Hasdai manuscripts. For example, the author of Goralot ha-Hol from the 18th century preserved in St. Petersburg (Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy, B 294) states clearly that this is the third variation, after variations of the same text by Ibn Ezra and Ibn Hasdai. It is important to mention that although all Franco Mendes' manuscripts were produced in Amsterdam, other manuscripts of Goralot ha-Hol were mostly produced in the sphere of Byzantium and later inTurkey.    

The text of Franco Mendes' Goralot ha-Hol opens with two prefaces. The first one is a preface of the scribe, i.e. of David Franco Mendes himself (fols. 2-3v), in which he states that this book is famous among the prominent people of Israel in the Holy Land, Ottoman Empire, and West. He quotes Jewish sages of the previous centuries who referred to the Goralot ha-Hol, such as Yehuda Halevi (ca. 1080-1141) in his Kuzari, R. Yehuda Arie (Leone) Moscato (died before 1594) in his commentary on the Kuzari called "Kol Yehuda", HaRalbag (Levi ben Gershon, 1288-1344) in his commentary on the Book of Daniel, R. Joseph Albo (Spain, 15th century) in his Sefer Ikkarim and Tahkemoni by Yehuda ben Solomon Alharizi (1165-1234). He also refers to the non-Jewish scholars, such as French priest Belluto, who explained in his Dictionary (Portuguese – Latin[4]) the meaning of the Greek term Geomancia. The second preface is a general preface (fols. 4-4v), in which the anonymous author explains when one can "cast the fates" (lehashlih goralot). He connects the time of casting fates with the position of the planets[5] i.e. the angles of the planets' disposition within the zodiac signs and the astrological houses[6] in which the planets are found at the time of casting fates. Below, on fol. 4v, there is a table of planets and of zodiac signs in which these planets ascend and descend.

The Goralot ha-Hol (fol. 5) opens with the conditions for casting fates, as for example, one can not ask more than one question, and it is prohibited to ask a question, an answer to which is known. He also represents several examples of geomantic figures with which it is not recommended to continue and one has to postpone the casting.

The process of casting fates is described on fols. 13-16. According to this description, the divination should be accomplished by forming and interpreting a design consisting of eighteen positions of geomantic figures. The figures that occupy the first four positions are of the primary importance and they are called "mothers". Each figure of "mothers" is formed by drawing four rows of dots, without counting them (fol. 13v, fig. 1).[7] The relation between the lengths of four rows in each group should reflect the relation between the lengths of the four fingers of the left hand and that is why each group is called also a "hand". It means that the first row relates to the length of the index finger; the second row must be longer and relate to the middle finger, and so on. Therefore, the rows are called, as the fingers: index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger. After this, the dots in each row are grouped in pairs so as to find whether the row has an even or odd number of dots. If the number of dots in the row is even, then this row is represented by a pair of dots, if it is odd, then –by only one dot (fol. 14, fig. 2). In this way, the "mothers" are created: four vertical figures (positions 1-4) consisting of four rows of one or two dots in each, connected by lines. In each figure, each row of dots from top to bottom is called: head, body and arms, thighs and legs. It is interesting to mark that in our manuscript the number of dots in the first row (index finger) of the third hand is odd, but the scribe represents them in the "mothers" by two dots, as it was even number of dots. In other manuscripts this mistake was corrected (the number of dots in this row is even) and the figures of the "mothers" are similar in all cases.

The next step is the creation of four figures called "daughters". The first figure of "daughters" (position 5) is formed by taking the top ("head") row of dots in the "mothers" from top to bottom and writing them as a column from top to bottom within a frame (fig. 3). Three other figures of "daughters" (positions 6-8) are obtained similarly by taking the second ("body and arms"), third ("thighs") and fourth ("legs") rows from the "mothers" respectively and turning them into columns, placing four daughters from right to left, side by side.          

The next figure (position 9), called "sons of sons" is formed by the first two figures of "mothers" (positions 1 and 2) (fol. 15). Starting with the "heads" the dots of these two figures are combined. If the sum is even, then two dots are placed on the top of the figure which is in position 9, if it is odd – one dot, and so on for all four rows. Three other figures of "sons of sons" (positions 10-12) are created in the same way from the combination of figures which are in positions 3 and 4; 5 and 6; 7 and 8.

Two additional figures (positions 13 and 14) called "witnesses" are formed by combining figures which are in the positions 9 and 10 (witness 1), and 11 and 12 (witness 2) in the same manner as the previous figures (fol. 15). The further combination between the two witnesses produces the figure called a "judge" (position 15), which is the final result and the “true judgment”.

But if there is any doubt about the divination it is recommendable to create two more figures (positions 16 and 17) called "Great Rabbi" and "President" (fol. 15v). The figure in position 16 is formed by combining figures which are in positions 13 and 1. The figure in position 17 is made of a figure in position 1 combined with the figure of "house of the question." It means that the choice of the second figure of this pair, needed for position 17, depends on the question asked by a geomancer. If, for example, the question concerns his father he has to combine figure in position 1 with the figure in position 4 which is responsible for fathers and mothers. (The diagram shows which positions are responsible for which questions is found on fol. 22). The figures of "Great Rabbi" and "President" themselves are not exactly the result of such combination and it seems that the scribe made few "mathematical" mistakes deliberately, from an unclear reason.  

The last figure, which is in position 18 should be created by combining figure 1 with figure 7 and figure 4 with figure 10. Each pair gives one figure called "loyal witness" and represents two of four elements: the first "loyal witness is earth + air and the second one is water + fire (fols. 16-16v). By combining these two witnesses one should create the last figure in position 18, called "king" which is the king of all figures.

Thus, in the complete tab