Visual Aspects of Scribal Culture in Ashkenaz: Shaping the 'Small Book of Commandments' (SeMaK)

240 Pages·2019·6.438 MB·German

by  Ingrid M. Kaufmann

Ingrid M. Kaufmann
Visual Aspects of Scribal Culture in Ashkenaz
Studia Judaica
Forschungen zur Wissenschaft des Judentums
Begründet von
Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich
Herausgegeben von
Günter Stemberger, Charlotte Fonrobert,
Elisabeth Hollender, Alexander Samely und Irene Zwiep
Band 103
Ingrid M. Kaufmann
Visual Aspects
of Scribal Culture
in Ashkenaz
Shaping the Small Book of Commandments (SeMaK)
ISBN 978-3-11-056938-4
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-057441-8
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-057362-6
ISSN 0585-5306
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019910010
Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
Detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Typesetting: Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd.
Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck
www.degruyter.com
A note of thanks
This study is based on a lightly revised version of my PhD thesis, Neben dem
Text: Kommentierung, Dekoration, Kritzelei – Der SeMaK (Das kleine Buch der
Gebote) als Zeugnis der visuellen Schreiberkultur in Ashkenaz, which the Faculty
of Humanities and Social Sciences at The University of Lucerne accepted after its
submission in 2016. It was Professor Katrin Kogman-Appel who gave me the idea
of publishing the German thesis in English. I am very grateful to her for doing so
and for making so many valuable suggestions about this work as well. My sincere
thanks to Carl Carter from Amper Translation Service for translating my thesis
into English with such care and enthusiasm. I would also like to express my gra-
titude to Professor Günter Stemberger and Professor Charlotte Fonrobert for their
critical appraisals of the study and for including it in the Studia Judaica series.
Many thanks to Dr Sophie Wagenhofer and Dr Eva Frantz at De Gruyter for the
help they both provided in finding solutions to issues I encountered during the
process of publishing this book.
And last but not least, I would like to thank my family and my friends Sheila
Briand, Andrea Gemma Sommaruga, Susanne Hess, Anita Moré and Christian
Widmer – you have all been a wonderful help and support to me.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110574418-201

Contents
A note of thanks   V
Abbreviations, transliteration and translation   IX
1 Introduction   1
1.1 Topics and structure   1
1.2 The aims of this book   2
1.3 The current state of research   6
1.4 Methodological approaches   17
2 The historical context   21
2.1 Zarfat   21
2.2 Jews in the regnum Teutonicum   25
2.3 Contacts between Zarfat and Ashkenaz   30
2.4 Italy   32
3 The SeMaK as a book   35
3.1 Works preceding the SeMaK   35
3.2 Isaac of Corbeil’s intention   37
3.3 How the SeMaK was received   39
3.4 The contents and structure of the SeMaK   41
4 The manuscripts in their entirety   45
4.1 O verview: number, geographic distribution and distribution
over time   45
4.2 H ow the manuscripts changed: from the North French Hebrew
Miscellany to the Zurich SeMaK   47
4.3 The visual presentation of SeMaK manuscripts   55
5 The scribes   61
5.1 Production conditions and technical aspects   61
5.2 Scribes and patrons   65
5.3 P roducing manuscripts for personal use and how this shaped
individual copies   69
6 Five manuscripts in detail   73
6.1 Copenhagen, KB, Cod. Hebr. Add. 6, Ashkenaz   73
6.2 Hamburg, SUB, Cod. Hebr. 17, Worms (?), 1317   86
VIII   Contents
6.3 Oxford, BOD, Opp. 339, Ingolstadt 1347   96
6.4 London, BL, Add. 18684, Nuremberg (?), 1391/92   106
6.5 Oxford, BOD, Arch. Seld. A51, Northern Italy   151
7 Conclusion   181
Appendix: Overview of manuscripts featuring the SeMaK   185
Bibliography   203
List of the manuscripts mentioned in this study   217
Figures   223
Index   227
Abbreviations, transliteration and translation
Libraries
BAV Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City
BL British Library, London
BNF Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
BOD Bodleian Library, Oxford
BPP Biblioteca Palatina, Parma
BRAG Braginsky Collection, Zurich
BSB Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich
HLuHB Hessische Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek, Darmstadt
JNUL Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem
JTS Jewish Theological Seminary, New York
KB Det Kongelige Bibliotek (The Royal Library), Copenhagen
ÖNB Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna (Austrian National Library)
RSL Russian State Library, Moscow
SBB Staatsbibliothek (Preussischer Kulturbesitz) Berlin
SUB Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Hamburg (Hamburg State and University Library)
ZB Zentralbibliothek, Zurich (The Central Library, Zurich)
Manuscripts
Add. BL: Additional manuscripts; KB: Additamenta
Arch. Seld. BOD: the Selden Archives
fol. folio
Mich. BOD: The Michael Collection
r recto
Opp. BOD: The Oppenheimer Collection
v verso
Rabbinic works
b Talmud Bavli
DEZ Derekh Erez Zuta
MekhY Mekhilta de Rabbi Yishmaʿel
SeMaG Sefer Mitzvot Gadol, ‘The Great Book of Commandments’ by Moshe of Coucy
SeMaK Sefer Mitzvot Katan, ‘The Small Book of Commandments’ by Isaac of Corbeil
Tashbez Teshuvot Samson bar Zadok, responsa by Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110574418-202
X   Abbreviations, transliteration and translation
Transliteration (based on the Encyclopaedia Judaica’s transliteration rules)
א ʼ [ʼa, ʼe, ʼi, ʼo, ʼu] ט t פ f, p
ב b, v י y, i צ ṣ
ג G כ K, kh ק q
ד D ל l ר r
ה H מ m שׁ sh
ו w, o, u נ n שׂ s
ז Z ס s ת t
ח ḥ ע [‘a, ‘e, ‘i, ‘o, ‘u]
English translations of primary sources
Bible NJPS (Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures: The New JPS Translation According to the
Traditional Hebrew Text)
Mishnah Philip Blackman, Mishnayoth (London: Mishna Press, 1953)
Talmud Bavli The William Davidson digital edition of the Koren Noé Talmud, based on Adin
Steinsaltz; Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, Koren Talmud Bavli (Jerusalem: Sefaria, 2012),
https://www.sefaria.org/texts/Talmud, accessed on 1/11/2017.