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This map of the Temple in Jerusalem made in Safed by a Jewish scribe comes from an example of a “pilgrimage scroll,” also known as an “itinerary,” because they included instructions for visiting holy…
On this illustrated page from a prayer book, written in an Ashkenazic hand, the scribe Simeon ben Naphtali has added, to the prayers said at a wedding, an image of the prophet Elijah (on the left)…
This siddur from Greece contains the prayers of the Romaniote (Greek-speaking Jewish) community of the eastern Mediterranean. It is open at a piyyut (liturgical poem) called “God’s Beloved Daughter,”…
This manuscript copy of Sefer ha-kavanot (The Book of [Kabbalistic] Intentions [in Prayer and Performance of Precepts]) by Ḥayim Vital was written in Meknes, Morocco. The kabbalists in Safed stressed…
This magnificent maḥzor (holiday prayer book) was copied—and most likely decorated—by the scribe Isaac bar Mordechai ha-Kohen (Isaac Lankosh of Kraków). (In several places, the name “Isaac” has…
This page from a birkon (Grace after Meals) is an example of the work of Aaron Wolf Herlingen (Aaron Schreiber), a prominent eighteenth-century scribe and artist known for his illustrated Grace after…
Kabbalists prayed using the basic Jewish prayers, but added certain elements according to their own tradition. The prayers are often presented with kavanot (special devotional forms, meanings, and…
This maḥzor (holiday prayer book), containing the Jewish prayers according to the Italian rite, was written by the scribe Eliezer ben Abraham of Pisa, for Yema, the widow of Moses of Modena (referred…
This decorated manuscript of the prayers for a circumcision ceremony was owned by one Joseph ben Samuel. On its title page (not shown) is an unidentified coat of arms decorated with the Order of the…
Hebrew manuscript illustration underwent a revival in eighteenth-century Germany and Central Europe. As wealthy Jews began to commission such manuscripts, a school of scribes and artists emerged. This…
