Obj. ID: 35191
Jewish printed books GFC Otto Geismar Printed Esther Scroll, Berlin, 1936
This is a paper scroll with printed text and illustrations. It opens with a prefatory panel that includes the title of the book - מגלת אסתר ("The Book of Esther") - in large, bold Hebrew letters, and informs the reader that it is illustrated with drawings by Otto Geismar. It also includes a note about copyright to Herbert Löwenstein (Tel Aviv 1936) and that the book was printed by M. Lessmann in Berlin. Above and below the prefatory panel, there are two depictions of King Ahasuerus. Other narrative scenes from the Book of Esther, 17 in total, separate columns of the text that are tall and narrow. Some scenes are grouped and placed one below the other, whereas others appear individually and occupy the entire space between the text columns. The final part of the scroll is not illustrated. The majority of illustrations are labeled in Hebrew. Below the last text column, the name of the scribe - Weisenberg - appears. All illustrations and texts in the scroll are printed in black ink.
A short biography and Geismar's immigration card are available https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/bearing-witness/esther-scroll.asp (accessed on 24.10.2020).
Other exemplars of the megillah sharing the same illustrations are stored in the Jewish Museum in Prague (inv. nos. 095.541, 084.999, and 178.216 - ID no. 36312), in the MAHJ in Paris (Inv. 2009.17.015 and Inv. 2000.16.169), in the JTS Library in New York (S282 and S474), and other institutional and private collections.
7 image(s)
sub-set tree:
The scroll is preserved intact.
The Book of Esther in Hebrew
The scroll is formed of 3 paper sheets containing 12 columns of the text with 42 lines, except for col. 10 with 11 lines divided into two parts.
The text of the Book of Esther with the vocalization is printed in the Ashkenazi stam script with tagin, in black ink. It reflects the text copied by an expert scribe and it shows scribal practices of typical Ashkenazi megillot, e.g. enlarged and diminished letters in Haman's sons section, enlarged letters ח (Es. 1:6) and ת (Es. 9:29).
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