Obj. ID: 34757
Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts MAHJ Adam and Eve Esther Scroll, The Netherlands (scroll), 17th-18th century (scroll), 19th century (decorations)
The scroll is decorated at its beginning and in the spaces between the text columns (the spaces on the last two sheets are left blank). It opens with the composition based on a biblical subject but not related to the Esther story. It depicts the scene from the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:6) when Eve who is standing before Adam, offers him an apple. Both figures are nude and shown in the leafy branches of the tree. Below them, four birds are depicted. All other decorations filling the spaces between the text columns are formed of various grotesques together with birds, other animals, and plants; in one of them, a figure of a naked adolescent is also painted. The style of the drawings alludes to the art of Medieval manuscripts but undoubtedly, they are the work of the 19th-century hand and they are a later addition to the manuscript.
The scroll is mounted on the wooden turned rod that is 315 mm high.
The spaces, where two sheets are stitched, are not decorated.
The text is not copied in the ha-melech layout but some text columns start with this word.
It is very likely that the upper and lower margins were trimmed. Possibly they were fitted to a rod on which the scroll is rolled. The edges of the sheets are not straight.
It can be noticed that in some places the painted details are put on the letters; this confirms that the decoration is a later addition to the scroll.
Only very few megillot Esther are decorated with the biblical scenes that are not related to the Book of Esther; see ID...
The scroll is displayed on the permanent exhibition of the Museum.
The former number of the manuscript (12263) is inscribed in ink on the last sheet, after the last text column.
sub-set tree:
| inv. D.98.04.078.CL (former number Cl 12263)
| inv. D.98.04.078.CL (former number Cl 12263)
E | Eden, Garden of
A | Adam and Eve | Adam and Eve, Temptation of
B | Bird
G | Grotesque
A | Animals and Beasts
E | Eden, Garden of | Tree of Knowledge
W | Woman | Nude
|
The spaces between the text columns are not of equal width; they are ca. 25, 30 mm wide.
An average letter is ca. 4 mm high, whereas the letters in col. 21 are 8 mm high.
Dimensions of the opening decoration - 155x60 mm.
The scroll is formed of 8 sheets containing 25 text column with 17 or 18 lines, except for col. 21 with 11 lines divided into two parts.
The text is copied in Sephardi script with tagim, in black ink.
The enlarged and diminished letters are present in col. 21. Whereas the letters ח (Es. 1:6) and ת (Es. 9:29) are not highlighted.
The parchment of the sheets is of medium thickness and stiffness. Both sides of the sheets are similar to each other and it is difficult to distinguish between their flesh and hair sides. The recto side is more smooth.
The ruling is visible but the first lines in the columns and vertical lines are particularly well visible. On the sheets' edges, the pricking can be seen.
The membranes in the scroll are stitched.
Synagoga. Kultgeräte und Kunstwerke von der Zeit der Patriarchen bis zur Gegenwart, Städtische Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, 3. November 1960 – 15. Januar 1961, ed. Anneliese Schröder, Recklinghausen 1961, object B 52.
Synagoga. Jüdische Altertümer Handschriften und Kultgeräte. Historisches Museum Frankfurt am Main, 17. Mai – 16. Juli 1961, Frankfurt am Main 1961, object 117.
Victor Klagsbald, Catalogue raisonné de la collection juive du Musée de Cluny, Paris 1981, 70-71, object 78.
Mendel Metzger, The John Rylands Megillah and Some Other Illustrated Megilloth of the 15th to 17th Centuries, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 1962, 45, 171-173.
A short description in French and an image of the manuscript are available on https://www.mahj.org/en/decouvrir-collections-betsalel/rouleau-d-esther-50074 (accessed on 22.04.2020).