Hebrew Manuscripts: The Power of Script and Image (original) (raw)

The celebrated bibliographer Abu'l Faraj al-Nadim wrote once in his Kitab al-fihrist: "It is said that ugly penmanship equals sterility of culture." The lavish illustrations of Tahan's volume confirm, albeit e contrario, the validity of the dictum, while displaying with the evidence of accomplished form the fertility of Jewish culture in its most revered branch: the transmission of knowledge through the sacred medium par excellence, the book. We have witnessed in recent years a growing interest, not restricted to scholarly pursuits but extended to a broader readership, in the aesthetic dimension of the book and its visual features within Judaism. Without returning to the pioneering works of Bezalel Narkiss, it will be sufficient here to recall two very important contributions in this field, such as Benjamin Richler's, Hebrew Manuscripts. A Treasured Legacy (Jerusalem: Feldheim Publishers, 1990) and Colette Sirat, Hebrew Manuscripts of the Middle Ages, ed. and trans. Nicholas De Lange (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). What distinguishes this particular contribution from those milestones is the peculiar scope of the truly wonderful exempla chosen for this secondary display (if we take for granted that photographic reproduction of art works tends to remove from them their "aura"). All of the manuscripts presented by Tahan are in fact preserved in only one library, although one of the richest on the planet: the British Library, formerly part of the British Museum. However, the opulent collection of the British Library allows Tahan, with less than 150 splendid reproductions, to trace a well-balanced survey of the history of manuscript decoration from the early Karaite Bible manuscripts (ms. Or. 2540 attributed to the tenth century) to the Shivitis and Menorah plaques of the ms. Or. 14057, produced in India in the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, the main bulk of the manuscripts reproduced in this volume are medieval, as in the Middle Ages the craftsmanship of Jewish scribes and illuminators celebrated its triumphs. The policy of the British Library, especially in nineteenth century, was to extensively collect Hebrew manuscripts from any place and age, so that one can say that with the exception