Bernard Picart
Bernard Picart (also known as Picard) was a French draftsman, engraver, and illustrator best known for his 266 engravings in Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde (Religious Ceremonies and Customs of All the People of the World; 1723–1737). Born in Paris, the son of Etienne Picart, a famous engraver, he settled in Amsterdam in the early eighteenth century and established a printing workshop and engraving school.
Content by Bernard Picart
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Circumcision Ceremony
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Funeral Activities
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Kiddushin and Wedding Ceremony
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Sukkot Celebrations
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The High Holidays
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Searching for Hametz and Passover Seder Among Sephardic Jews
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Early Modern Rabbis and Intellectuals on the Move
Carrying books and knowledge, itinerant rabbis and scholars traveled between communities, facilitating cultural exchange.
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Early Modern Religious Practices
Early modern Jews both preserved tradition and innovated. Documents and legal texts reveal rich details about synagogue life, marriage, family relations, and death rituals.
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Early Modern Spiritual Ideologies
Early modern Jewish spiritual life encompassed diverse elements, including theology, ethics, liturgy, and messianism.
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Early Modern Literature and the Arts
Jewish literary creativity flourished in the early modern period, dominated by Hebrew poetry that blended religious themes with Renaissance forms.