Medical Diploma of Emanuel Colli from the University of Padua

Ioannes Aloysius Foppa de Rota

1692

Facing-page manuscript with left-hand side of three framed images surrounded by flora and birds: the top image of two men holding a book and cup, the middle of man with curly hair and collar, and bottom of a bird; and right-hand side of Latin text surrounded by decorative flora.
This diploma of Doctor of Medicine was awarded to Emanuel Colli by the University of Padua, Italy. Designed as a small, illuminated book, its four leaves are decorated with floral borders, and include a portrait of the graduate. While it has been conjectured that the man on the left in the small portrait above Colli’s portrait is meant to depict a rabbi, the same figure appears on the diplomas of non-Jewish graduates of the university and is believed to represent Hippocrates. The other man is believed to represent a famous physician.

Credits

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Frederic Weiss, Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California Berkeley; Photographer Sibila Savage.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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