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Obj. ID: 35514  Historisches Museum Frankfurt Franck Esther Scroll, Prague (?), ca. 1700

© Historisches Museum Frankfurt, Photographer: Ziegenfusz, Horst, 08.2020.

1 image(s)

Name/Title
Historisches Museum Frankfurt Franck Esther Scroll | Unknown
Object Detail
Date
ca. 1700
Synagogue active dates
Reconstruction dates
Artist/ Maker
Franck, Philipp Jakob (engraver)
(Engraver)
{"2774":"(17th\u201318th centuries) was a Christian engraver, possibly from Augsburg, who later settled in Prague and was married there in 1696. He collaborated with Anton Franz Brechler and is known as a maker of Christian religious graphics and illustrations for Esther scrolls. Franck used different signatures which can be discovered even in one and the same work."}
Origin
Historical Origin
Unknown
Community
Unknown |
Location
Unknown |
Site
Unknown
School/Style
Franck scrolls|
{"218":"The family of most likely Prague Esther scrolls from the early 18th century whose borders were at least partly designed by the German engraver, Philipp Jakob Franck (life dates unknown). The decorative scheme opens with several figurative scenes from the Book of Esther narrative; one of them is signed by Franck. The upper and lower margins are adorned with the lavishly decorated printed border composed of acanthus leaves with uncovered women busts, peacocks and possibly Phoenixes. In the central part of each margin, a decorative cartouche with a landscape is placed. The text panels are interspersed with twisted columns. Above them, there are miniature depictions of the episodes from the Esther story and its protagonists or flower-filled vases. None of the exemplars is colored."}
Period
Period Detail
Category
Material/Technique
Ink on parchment (hand-written text, printed decoration)
Material Stucture
Material Decoration
Material Bonding
Material Inscription
Material Additions
Material Cloth
Material Lining
Tesserae Arrangement
Density
Colors
Construction material
Measurements
The total dimension of the scroll is unknown. For the measurements of the details in the scroll, see ID 37869.
Height
Length
Width
Depth
Circumference
Thickness
Diameter
Weight
Axis
Panel Measurements
Hallmark
Condition

The membranes are connected in a clumsy manner.

Extant
Documented by CJA
Surveyed by CJA
Present Usage
Present Usage Details
Condition of Building Fabric
Architectural Significance type
Historical significance: Event/Period
Historical significance: Collective Memory/Folklore
Historical significance: Person
Architectural Significance: Style
Architectural Significance: Artistic Decoration
Urban significance
Significance Rating
Description

This scroll is adorned with an engraved border designed by Philipp Jakob Franck in which the Hebrew text of the Book of Esther is hand-copied by a scribe.

It starts with a panel composed of a crown-topped cartouche, supported by two standing angels and three scenes from the Book of Esther placed one under the other. Elongated cartouches for the Hebrew inscriptions are added to the scenes. The illustrations are labeled, but their wording is not the same in all surviving versions of this type of megillah. Additionally, there is an inscription in the lower-left corner of the second illustration in the Latin alphabet (see "Signature"). The upper and lower margins of the entire scroll are decorated with the same pattern, a composition of dense acanthus leaves in which nude busts, landscapes framed in decorative cartouches, and birds (possibly phoenixes) are woven.

The text of the megillah is inscribed in rectangular panels separated by twisted columns. Just above each column are flower-filled vases and narrative scenes from the Purim story: 1) King Ahasuerus with his scepter (possibly alluding to Es. 1:1); 2) Queen Esther with her scepter; 3) Bigthan and Teresh hanging on the gallows (Es. 2:23); 4) Seven maidservants of Esther (Es. 2:9); 5) The king giving his ring to Haman (Es. 3:10); 6) Mordecai with an open book before Haman (it is unclear what part of the text this scene represents); 7) Mordecai on horseback (alluding to Es. 6:11); 8) The king giving his ring to Mordechai (Es. 8:2); 9) Haman pleading with Esther for mercy (Es. 7:7–8); 10) Esther in front of Haman's house (Es. 8:1 (?)); 11) Esther writing the Purim letter (Es. 9:29). These scenes are also labeled in Hebrew, though their sequence is not the same in all preserved examples of this type of scroll.

Four other narrative scenes from the Book of Esther are printed one under the other in the final section of the scroll. They are as follows: 1) Possibly the first Purim feast (Es. 9:17-23); 2) Esther’s second banquet (Es. 7:3); with the gallows built for Mordechai in the background (Es. 5:14); 3) Queen Esther before the king while he extends his scepter to her, and Mordechai kneeling in front of him while becoming the new royal vizier and receiving Ahasuerus's ring (Es. 8:2-4); 4) Mordecai writing the Purim letter (Es. 9:29). In the 2nd and 3rd scenes, elongated cartouches for inscriptions are incorporated.

Custom
Contents

The Book of Esther in Hebrew

Codicology

The scroll is formed of 4 sheets containing 16 columns of the text with 24 lines except for col. 14 with 15 lines (11 of them containing Haman's sons section are divided into two parts).

Every membrane contains 4 columns of text.

The text is inscribed in Hebrew square Ashkenazi script with tagin, in very dark brown ink that is almost black, on the flesh side of each parchment membrane.

The letter ח (Es. 1:6) is slightly bigger than an average letter in the scroll. Col. 14 does not include enlarged and diminished letters.

Erroneous text fragments are cut out and the correct passages are written on strips of parchment that are glued underneath the membranes.

The ruling - made with a stylus - is almost invisible.

The membranes in the scroll are stitched together.

Scribes
Script
Number of Lines
Ruling
Pricking
Quires
Catchwords
Hebrew Numeration
Blank Leaves
Direction/Location
Façade (main)
Endivances
Location of Torah Ark
Location of Apse
Location of Niche
Location of Reader's Desk
Location of Platform
Temp: Architecture Axis
Arrangement of Seats
Location of Women's Section
Direction Prayer
Direction Toward Jerusalem
Signature
The signature of the engraver appears in one of the narrative scenes at the beginning of the scroll. In the lower-left corner, on the checkered floor, the short Latin formula "Franck fec: Prag" - "made by Franck [in] Prague" - can be read.
Colophon

None

Scribal Notes
Watermark
Binding
Decoration Program
Summary and Remarks

Around 15 megillot featuring the same border are housed in private and institutional collections; see related objects. Yet another exemplar used to be a part of the Gross Family Collection (no. 081.012.044) but in 2003, it was stolen from the Beit Hatfutsot Museum in Tel Aviv (Hilfe erbeten: Judaica Diebstahl: http://www.judentum.net; accessed on 14.12.2018). There are also two scrolls embellished with the same border but with texts other than the Book of Esther.

History/Provenance
Main Surveys & Excavations
Bibliography

The scrolls featuring the same border are described in:

Dagmara Budzioch, Verzierte Ester-Rollen – illustriert von dem Prager Kupferstecher Philipp Jakob Franck [in:] Zwischen Offenbarung und Kontemplation: Die Wolfenbütteler hebräischen Schriftrollen, mit Beiträgen von Dagmara Budzioch und Ad Stijnman (Wolfenbütteler Forschungen), Wiesbaden 2021, pp. 106-117.

A Journey through Jewish Worlds: Highlights from the Braginsky Collection of Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books, eds. Evelyn M. Cohen, Emile Schrijver, Sharon Mintz, Amsterdam 2009, 266–267.

Olga Sixtova, O svitku / Form of the Scroll [katalog k výstavě konané v Galerii Roberta Guttmanna Židovského muzea v Praze od 22. června do 26. července 2006]”, Praha 2006, 36.

http://braginskycollection.com/scrolls/prague/ (accessed on 21.09.2020).

A Magnificent Illustrated Esther Scroll [Prague ca. 1700], lot 169: http://www.sothebys.com; accessed on 14.12.2018.

A Magnificent Illustrated Esther Scroll [Prague: ca. 1700], lot 24: http://www.sothebys.com; accessed on 14.12.2018.

Short Name
Full Name
Volume
Page
Type
Documenter
Dagmara Budzioch | 2020
Researcher
Dagmara Budzioch | 2020
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Donor
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