BOOKBINDING

Book owners were obliged to care for their books, and to that end all large Jewish communities hired book „repairmen,” bookbinders assigned to produce durable book bindings. The front and back covers were usually made of wood and covered with fine leather. They were often embossed with unusual designs and sometimes had designs cut into the leather or were enhanced with metallic decorations. The Saraval Collection has very few old bindings, as most date back to the early nineteenth century.

SCRIBES

The Jews, aside from revering books, also held in high regard those who created them. Professional scribes, soferim, practiced the sacred art of painstakingly producing religious texts by hand. Scribes also served as notaries who recorded legal documents. Though prestigious, their work was not well paid, and many scribes copied nonreligious texts to supplement their income. Soferim usually worked at home, though some resided with employers who supported them. Scholars, students, physicians, cantors, artisans, and even butchers, also worked as scribes as they were all engaged in professions in which continual study and an intimate knowledge of religious laws and obligations were required.

COLOPHON

Copying a single book was a strenuous, labor-intensive activity that could take many months, and yet copyists generally remained anonymous. One of the places where their names could be mentioned was in the “colophon” – a brief statement indicating when the work was completed and identifying the scribe. This information was not displayed on the title page as old manuscripts, unlike modern books, lacked title pages; the title and author were generally inscribed immediately before the text.

FEMALE SCRIBES

Jewish women were for the most part excluded from intellectual life. Unlike men, they did not have an obligation to study the Torah, yet they were often taught the Hebrew alphabet. At times, however, women whose husbands or fathers were scribes or scholars were allowed to receive an education. Women were never permitted to copy the Torah but they could help their male relatives with correspondence or scholarly texts. Only a few books copied by female scribes have survived to this day. The Saraval Collection includes one such rare work by a female scribe named Paula, who created it in Rome in 1288.

ORDER AND CLARITY

Medieval scribes and copyists knew that the pages of codices and books had to be orderly, clear, and legible if they were to truly serve their purpose. Profiat Duran, living in the late 14th and early 15th century, extolled the importance of aesthetics in his Hebrew grammar book, “Read only these books that are beautifully written on fine paper, bound well and neatly. Beauty must be everywhere, in your books, and in your home.”

COMPOSING THE TEXT

Once scraped clean of hair and trimmed to the appropriate size, parchment pages were marked with columns and lines to ensure equal spaces between the lines. This was done with tiny punctures made with a sharp metal tool. These punctures were joined using a graphite marker or ink to delineate text columns. Manuscripts in the Saraval Collection show that text columns were not limited to a standard rectangular shape: nonstandard shapes like circles and triangles and unusual arrangements appeared as well.

WRITING MATERIALS

Preparation of the writing materials was an important stage in the creation of a manuscript. Bits of dry ink were dissolved in a small amount of water. Local writing tradition determined the colors. Western European scribes used various shades of brown, while black was dominant in texts of Eastern origin. Flexible quills, like those preferred by Christian scribes, were used, enabling free-flowing lines. A sharpened reed pen was a more dependable instrument with which regular-shaped letters could be drawn. The use of various writing materials contributed to a number of distinct Hebrew scripts.

STYLE REFLECTS CHARACTER

The 13th-century poet Joseph Ezobi exhorted his newly-wed son in “The Silver Bowl” with these words: ”When thou a letter sendest to thy friend, Is it neatly written? nay? ‘twill sure offend; For in his penmanship man stands revealed – Purest intent by chastest style is sealed.” The Hebrew alphabet stems directly from the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, probably one of the oldest writings systems known. It was known as Assyrian or “square” script in the ancient world. Numerous varieties evolved over time. Each major medieval Jewish community generated its own characteristic form of Hebrew script, which was strongly influenced by the environment in which it developed and by the writing materials that were in use.

WRITING TRADITIONS

The manuscripts in the Saraval Collection originated in various parts of Europe (Italy, Spain, Germany, and Poland) and Africa. The writing methods found in the collection represent the diverse writing traditions that existed in medieval Europe. Sephardic scripts emerged from the rich Arabic culture of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. Changes in the Latin alphabet affected the Ashkenazi writing traditions of Central and Western Europe. Byzantine script found inspiration in the Greek alphabet.

CALLIGRAPHY

Three types of Hebrew script can be distinguished depending on the category of a given text. A neat and elegant square script was used for copying the Bible and other religious texts. Its meticulous letters were written on precise lines and were frequently ornamented with additional elaborate elements (with the exception of the Bible). Short notes, correspondence, and informal texts were written in cursive or semicursive with little care or precision, making them difficult to decipher. Rabbinic calligraphy fell somewhere in between: more legible than the cursive script but not as visually attractive as the square one.

ILLUMINATION

lluminare is the Latin word for “to lighten” or “brighten.” Any additions to the text of a manuscript using color or introducing figures or other ornaments were considered illumination. Jewish texts, despite the ban on figural ornamentation in the Bible, employed this method to add variety to a monotonous sequence of words. The illuminator began where the scribe left off. Special marks in the margins, next to spaces that were intentionally left blank, indicated the manner in which the manuscript was to be decorated. Not every manuscript could be embellished, however, as illuminating Torah scrolls was strictly prohibited.

MICROGRAPHY

Ornamentation of Hebrew manuscripts was distinguished by specific characteristics. The text was the first segment of a page to be decorated. The shape and size of letters varied. The first word of a paragraph was frequently surrounded by an ornamental panel filled with minute designs. Illumination of the first word in a paragraph was a modification of the Christian custom of illuminating the first letter. However, the most striking and unusual lettering technique found in the Saraval Collection is micrography, i.e., the text itself written as a long, elaborate, and fanciful pattern.

DECORATIVE INSPIRATION

Jewish illuminators frequently drew inspiration from the works of both Christian and Muslim artists and made frequent use of elements from these works. They contain floral and geometric elements inspired by Muslim design, while fantastic monsters, dragons, animals, and even human figures were derived from Christian codices and manuscripts. The distinguishing feature of Jewish works was the inclusion of artistic elements intrinsically associated with Jewish tradition such as the menorah, the eight-branched candelabrum used in the Temple.

THE PRINTING REVOLUTION

The invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century brought about a real revolution because movable type allowed a printer to make numerous copies within a short period of time. As the demand for the printed word exploded, the invention of the printing press gained widespread popularity in the Jewish world as well. David Ben Salomon Gans, a Jewish scholar from Prague, best expressed the esteem accorded to the printing press: “... praised be The One who reveals His grace to us by creation of an art that has no equal amongst any sciences and art since the world was created.” Incunabula, i.e., books printed before 1501, are genuine rarities. Earlier printing shops, few in number with far from perfect production techniques, published only a very few books, many of which were later lost.

EARLY PRINTS

Incunabula harkened back to manuscript traditions in that, for example, the texts were arranged within columns or there were no title pages. Initially, illuminators provided hand-drawn ornamentation. The repertoire of the first Jewish printing shops mirrored that of manuscript production as, first and foremost, they produced religious books including Bibles, excerpts from the Talmud, and works that enhanced the study and interpretation of the major texts. The selection of printed works reflected the real needs of Jewish communities and their members’ participation in Jewish religious life.

THE ITALIAN TRADITION

The oldest Hebrew books in the Saraval Collection are true rarities. Nearly all of them were printed in Italy, the cradle of Jewish print art. Printed most likely in Rome by Ovadia, Menasse, and Benyamin, a Torah commentary was one of the first books using Hebrew font. It was compiled by an acclaimed scholar known by the acronym Rashi. Copies were printed by the Soncino family in the town of the same name. The collection also contains a copy of the first Hebrew book printed in Lisbon.

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The authors of the exhibition