Rimmōn · 1921-01-01 · 2 (1921) · p. Seite 48 (מח)

1 \ fT׳-' ־33r״ Guide to the Mediaeval Illuminations. The examples of the arts of miniature painting, illumation and handwriting reproduced in the present issue of the “RIMON” have been taken from Hebrew Manuscripts of the Franco-German rite. They form a distinct group. Thus the handwriting there is more articulated and more angular than in the Hebrew Manuscripts of Spanish origin. (Some examples of the latter have been reproduced in the “RIMON”, Number 1.) The Gothic taste which spread from France through the wholc of Europe during the 13th and the 14th centuries as well as the use of the quill instead of the reed as a writing instrument will account for the change the style of Hebrew penmanship had undergone in the Northern European countries. The Prayerbook for Festivals preserved in the Rashi Synagogue in Worms is one of the earlier specimens of that kind. There is to be noted first of all the broken, angular character of the lettering and the bending movement of the vertical strokes (fig. on pp. 1 and 4). Another characteristic pointing to the contemporaneous Gothic influence is to be found in the a r c h i - tectural backgrounds of the miniatures. In the Machsor of Worms and the one of Leipzig (fig. on p. 2) the semi-circular arches of the pre-Gothic or Romanesque period have been partly superseded by the ogee and the trefoil-arch. The f i g u r e s , especially in the miniatures representing “Aaron lighting the Candles” (fig. on p. 3) and ״The Bridal Pair” (fig. on p. 2), are of the most masterly skill and delicacy. They are slender, with a gentle undulating movement of the body. The bride and the bridegroom are smartly dressed. The narrow boots with pointed toes, the close fitting dresses, the long sleeves tight to the wrist, the hoods and the pointed headdresses oi Judenhüte are indicative of the fashions of the Age and even of the regulations for Jews in the countrics where thesc Manuscripts originated. In the 15th Century the costume bccomes shorter as shown in the dress of the musician represented in the miniature from the Nurcmberg Haggadah Nr. 2 (fig. on p. 6). The Ornament although enriched with new Gothic accessories includes old features betraying Oriental influcnces. Lions (fig. on p. 4), elephants with trumpet trunks, camels (fig. on p. 1), unicorns, dragons, grotesque combinations of beasts and men, and contorted monsters have been used as pedestals in the arched doorways which usually frame the text of the Hebrew Manuscripts even as late as the 15th Century, whereas in Christian illumination of that time crouching beasts used as bases, become rather rare. The new Gothic plantforms such as the thorny leafage and particulary the trefoil-foliage occur in Hebrew Medi®val illumination, but the old familiär deviccs such as the palmette, the wavy motif with acanthus leafage as shown on the pillars on p. 4 and the interlaced banded ornament (on the right Capital, p. 4) also remain in favour. The Jewish illuminator particularly sticks to the ancient tradition and thus the link between Mediajval and antique Hebrew work has never been broken. The illustrations of the Prayerbook for Festivals form a distinct cycle in the same way as those of the Book for the Passover Service and the Book of Esther. The edge of the miniature representing “The Granting of the Law” (fig. on p. 1) has been cut away and the sccne is only recognisable by comparison with a similar picture in a Machsor of the Bodlcian Library (No. 2373, Laud. Or. 321). In the miniature on p. 4 the Day of Atonement is symbolically represented by a pair of scales which point also to the month of Tishri, the balance being the zodiacal sign of that month. In the Machsor of Dresden the scales carry a devil and a nude human figure. Among the other picturcs of the serics belonging to the Machsor may be cited the “Baking of Mazzoth”, the “Bctrothal”, hunting scenes, the hanged sons of Haman, the zodiacal signs, etc. The leading feature of the Mediaeval Hebrew Prayerbooks of Franco-Gcrman origin is the spirit of r a i 11 e r y. l'igurcs with dog and wolf heads in buffoon attitudes occur in many a Christian devotional book of that epoch. Grotesqucs of that kind arc also to be found on the leaves of the Worms Machsor reproduced in the present issue. The Worms Machsor*) is the more valuable as it is dated. The note of the Scribe runs as follows: “I, Simcha, son of Judah, the Scribe, have copied this Prayerbook for my uncle Baruch, son of Isaac, during 44 weeks and have arranged everything according to the requirements of the Sacred Service, and have accomplished the work in the ycar 1272.” The picture “Aaron lighting the Candles” has been taken from an early Mediaeval Hebrew Manuscript, containing a ealender for the ycar 1278. Another mcans of Identification is provided there by the date (1276) of the martyrdom of R. Shimshon at Metz to whose memory the Scribe, Benjamin, had devoted a poem. The exquisitely drawn commencing words (fig. on pp. 3 and 8) belong to an undated Dresden Machsor cxccutcd, as it may be assumed, in Western Germany about the middle of the 14th Century. The Nurcmberg Haggadah No. 2, from which the sccne of the “Wedding of Moses and Zippora’ is taken, is an undated Manuscript executed in Central Germany. *) Information on the Machsor of Worms has been kindly supplied by M. S. Rothschild in Worms and M. E. Toeplitz. ברח