Ku-bukh (Book of Cows)
1595
Title page of the first known printed version of the Ku-bukh (Cow Book), a sixteenth-century collection of Yiddish fables, published in Verona, Italy in 1595. The later compendium of Yiddish stories known as The Mayse-bukh (Book of Stories) condemned the Ku-bukh, whose tone has been described as “earthy,” as morally corrupting. Two women working are depicted at the bottom. The one on the left may be carding wool, or using a small, tabletop loom, while the one on the right is weaving cloth at a full-size loom.
Credits
Moshe N. Rosenfeld and Abraham Basevi, title page from The Book of Cows: A Facsimile Edition of the Famed Kuhbuch, Verona 1595, from a Unique Copy in a Private Collection (London: Hebraica Books, 1984). Harvard University Libraries.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.
You may also like
The Sacrifice
The train was beginning to slow down again, and Abraham noticed lights in the distance. He shifted his body only slightly so as not to disturb the boy, and sank back into the familiar pattern of…
Scroll of the Book of Esther
Like Torah scrolls, the scroll of the biblical book of Esther, read ritually in the synagogue on the holiday of Purim, must be completely unadorned. However, in the sixteenth century, for reasons…
Herself
Apples. That’s what New Yorkers of the 1930s remember. Apples of the Hesperides, neatly stalled on corner after corner, sold on the last trembling line of decency by men who were unwilling to beg…
You may also like
The Sacrifice
The train was beginning to slow down again, and Abraham noticed lights in the distance. He shifted his body only slightly so as not to disturb the boy, and sank back into the familiar pattern of…
Scroll of the Book of Esther
Like Torah scrolls, the scroll of the biblical book of Esther, read ritually in the synagogue on the holiday of Purim, must be completely unadorned. However, in the sixteenth century, for reasons…
Herself
Apples. That’s what New Yorkers of the 1930s remember. Apples of the Hesperides, neatly stalled on corner after corner, sold on the last trembling line of decency by men who were unwilling to beg…