Renaissance of a Hebraica masterpiece

Jewish Chronicle – March 24 1989

Edited by Meir Persoff

NEXT MONTH sees the publication of the Rothschild Miscellany facsimile, one of the highlights of last week’s Jerusalem Book Fair.

The Rothschild Miscellany was commissioned by Moses ben Yekutiel Hacohen, probably around 1470, at the height of the Renaissance in Italy. It was a time when artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo executed their greatest achievements.

It was also a time when the Jews in Italy came into contact with all sectors of society and adopted the way of life of the gentile aristocracy. They enjoyed the favourable attitude of some of the great Italian princes, such as the Medici of Florence and the Este of Ferrara.

The prohibition by the Church for Christians to lend money for interest was highly beneficial to the Jewish community, many of whom prospered. The wealthy Jew became a man of the Renaissance, with a taste for letters and art, and a delight in affluent living.

Nonetheless, the Jews never became estranged from their intellectual and religious heritage. This was a period of unprecedented cultural activity among Italian Jewry, producing scholars, artists, poets and physicians.

The Rothschild Miscellany, as it is now known, is the most elegantly and lavishly executed Hebrew manuscript of that era. From its inception, it was planned as a sumptuous work to encompass, in minute detail, almost every custom of religious and secular Jewish life.

The figure drawings and border decorations of the miniatures mirror the rich Italian Renaissance influence and were probably made in a workshop in northern Italy.

Fanciful landscapes, spatial perspective settings and the precision of human and animal representations echo the style of the best artists who worked for the court of the Este in the third quarter of the fifteenth century.

The history of the Miscellany is something of a mystery. From 1832 to 1855, the manuscript was in the Solomon de Parente collectionin Trieste; it was later sold to the Rothschild family in Paris and remained there until it was stolen during the Nazi occupation and reappeared, after the war, in New York.

Someone tried to sell it to Alexander Marx, librarian at the Jewish Theological Seminary, who realised that it had been stolen from the Rothschilds and returned it to them in London.

James de Rothschild was persuaded by Mordechai Narkiss, director of the Bezalel Museum in Israel, that a manuscript of such importance was a national treasure and therefore belonged in Israel. In 1957, de Rothschild sent it as a gift to the Bezalel (now part of the Israel Museum).

The Rothschild Miscellany consists of more than 70 religious and secular works. All have textual illustrations for each festival, and prayers for special occasions.

The secular books include philosophical, moralistic and scientific treatises. The text throughout is accompanied by marginal notes and rabbinical commentaries.

This large collection of miscellaneous yet connected texts became the framework for an unprecedented programme of illumination. It contains a wealth of material illustrating almost every custom of daily life in a Jewish Renaissance household. Of 948 pages, 816 are decorated in minute detail in vibrant colours, gold and silver.

In 1980, when we embarked on the Kennicott Bible facsimile, few believed that the colossal project could ever come to fruition. Five years later the Bodleian Library was moved to write that it was “perhaps the most faithful and exact copy ever to be produced.”

The Rothschild Miscellany proved to be an even greater challenge, for the publisher’s philosophy dictates that a facsimile must be as close to the original as humanly possible. Tremendous efforts were made to acquire the finest materials and craftsmen to impart to each volume not only the presence, but also the feel, of an original manuscript.

We moved to Italy to supervise every stage of the facsimile’s production and, by combining craftsmanship and dogged determination with modern technology, remarkable results have been achieved.

The Rothschild Miscellany was hand-copied and illuminated on foetal vellum, which is soft and translucent. The folios were studied for their thickness, weight and opacity and a new type of “paper,” virtually indistinguishable from the manuscript’s vellum, was specially milled in Italy.

The result is a fine vegetable parchment, with the same natural characteristics of skin, that makes printing on it very difficult.

The printing of the minutely-detailed illuminations, in up to 12 colours, demanded considerable skill and perseverance of the Italian master-printer. Colour separations were made for each of the 948 pages; every one was individually checked against the manuscript in Jerusalem and then re-proofed in Italy (up to four times for each page) until the colour was exactly right.

However, no printing process can adequately simulate the gold leaf in the manuscript and it was decided that the only way to reproduce raised burnished gold was to lay the leaf by hand, thereby achieving the richness and “feel” of the original gold. Thus, on 812 pages, gold was “built up” so as faithfully to reproduce burnished gold.

In addition, the manuscript contains thousands of illustrations with powdered gold and flat gold leaf and this, too, has been applied by hand in the facsimile.

The pages of the manuscript contain the minute pricking holes made by the scribe between which he ruled parallel lines to guide him in the writing of the text. Even these pinsize holes have been reproduced.

The edges of the pages of the Miscellany are brown with age and irregular. In the facsimile, each one has been laboriously cut to exactly the same size and shape as the original, then “aged” and finally gilt with 23-carat gold leaf at the very edges.

As the original binding of the manuscript no longer exists, Dr Mirjam Foot, binding specialist at the British Library, suggested an exquisite Italian binding of the period, worthy of the manuscript, which our craftsmen have copied in minute detail.

The facsimile is bound in fine-grain, morocco goatskin, blind-tooled with bevelled edges, hand-sewn head and tail bands and silver clasps on leather thongs. The Israel Museum plans to rebind the manuscript in the same binding as the facsimile.

The companion volume, edited by the Israel Museum, was written by five eminent scholars, who have discussed the art, iconography, palaeography, liturgy and history of the manuscript in great detail. This volume is in itself the most comprehensive work ever written about the Rothschild Miscellany and is bound to the same exacting standards as the facsimile.

MICHAEL FALTER

The North French Miscellany

Letter from the British Library – 5th March 2004

Dear Linda and Michael,

Last Monday David Way and I opened the box containing the facsimile of the North French Miscellany. Unwrapping the beautiful blue packaging was done with the greatest anticipation and excitement. We were immediately struck by the quality and standard of your work and most impressed at seeing how faithfully and beautifully everything has been replicated.

The palette of colours, the choice of paper that emulates the colour and texture of vellum, the stain marks and fingerprints left in the book, the ink and pigment smudges, the marbled paper on the boards, the gold applied so carefully to the miniatures, are just some of the many delightful features that strike one with every turn of the page.

I also very much admired the ageing effect on the matt leather covers, particularly along the spine, and the delicate erosion of the gold motifs on the boards. David Way said that the ageing effect was probably one of the hardest things to achieve and you have certainly managed that to perfection.

The beautifully crafted and attractively bound accompanying volume is a very important addition. I truly liked the pale creamy colour of the leather binding. An elegant choice indeed! Placing black and white illustrations as dividers between the various research papers has created a very aesthetic effect.

The slip cases too should not go unmentioned for they are attractive, solid and well designed. I particularly liked the brown leather trimmings and the rounded inside block matching the contours of the main volume.

The facsimile is in itself a priceless treasure and I have no doubt whatsoever that its fortunate owners and future library researchers would marvel at its beauty.

Please accept my warmest congratulations on the successful completion of a gigantic and challenging project!!!

We look forward to receiving the remaining two copies to add to the library’s collection.

With very best wishes
Ilana Tahan
Hebraica Curator

Jewish Art – The art of bookmaking

The International Jerusalem Post – June 27, 2003

BY LEORA EREN FRUCHT

Modern technology has made it possible to own an exact copy of a medieval Hebrew masterpiece by a mysterious scribe

Picture King David in a crimson robe, seated on his throne, playing the lyre. Visualize Aharon pouring oil into the menora. These famous scenes from the Bible are among dozens of richly colored, gold-embossed illustrations completed under the guidance of a scribe named Benjamin, who worked near Troyes – the French town where Rashi taught – in the Middle Ages.

The scribe, about whom little is known, collaborated with local artists to illustrate – and possibly commission – what is considered one of the most exquisite and comprehensive Hebrew manuscripts of Medieval Europe, known as the North French Hebrew Miscellany. More a library than a single document, the 1,494-page manuscript was composed around the year 1280 and includes the Pentateuch and Haftarot (passages from the Prophets), Song of Songs, and several other biblical texts; the daily, Sabbath and festival prayers; Pirkei Avot(Ethics of the Fathers); the Passover Haggada; prayers associated with marriage and birth; assorted legal codes for agreements concerning marriage, divorce, and business partnerships; a mathematical riddle; laws governing ritual slaughter; and a wide range of medieval poetry – in all, 84 subjects. To date, the treasure has been kept in the British Library, where only a handful of scholars have been granted permission to examine it because of its fragility.

This month, the public will get a peek at the trove, when the first copy of the manuscript, produced by Facsimile Editions of London, is displayed at the Jerusalem Book Fair, June 23-27.

This is one of the finest, most beautiful Hebrew manuscripts I have ever seen,” says Prof. Malachi Beit-Arié, one of the few scholars to have viewed the original at the British Museum.

Beit-Arié, a former director of the National Library in Jerusalem, has studied some 5,000 Hebrew manuscripts written between 900 and 1540 CE. He also wrote part of the commentary accompanying the soon-to-be published facsimile edition of the North French Hebrew Miscellany which, like the original, contains full-page gold embossed illustrations of famous biblical scenes, as well as marginal decorations of arabesques, flowers, animals, and birds adorning every folio.

“In terms of design, production and complexity, this one is a real beauty,” says the professor of Codicology and Palaeography at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

It is also a rare document. Most Hebrew manuscripts from this period have perished – in part because of the public burnings of Jewish books in which France’s King Louis IX personally participated. There is another less dramatic explanation for the dearth of Hebrew manuscripts.

“While most Latin manuscripts of that time were produced to be kept in royal collections or cathedrals, the Hebrew manuscripts of the Middle Ages were produced for consumption,” notes Beit-Arié. “These books perished over time out of sheer wear and tear.” The North French Hebrew Miscellany is a remnant of that period – one which is surrounded by mystery.

“This work is one of the most impressive achievements of any Jewish scribe of the Middle Ages,” says Beit-Arié, “and yet we don’t know who he was or who his patron was.” “Benjamin the Scribe” has signed his name in several places, but Beit-Arié notes that this name does not appear in any other Hebrew manuscript – and he has studied thousands of them. There is also no mention of a patron.

“This,” he says, “is a great paradox. It is inconceivable that such a luxurious manuscript would be signed by a scribe without mentioning the patron, who must have been more than well off – unless Benjamin produced it for himself.”

Beit-Arié notes that Benjamin must have been an extraordinary man.

“We know he was a scholar. He would have had to have been a learned man in order to compile this unique combination of texts.”

He probably employed top artisans, many of them Christians, to execute the work, particularly the gold illuminations.

The enigmatic Benjamin also composed a poem about a Jewish French martyr, Samson, who was murdered in 1275. That poem is one of many in the manuscript, notes Beit-Arié.

“So he was a scribe, a scholar, a poet, and possibly a wealthy man. Yet he remains an obscure figure in Jewish history.”

While little is known about the master behind the manuscript, much more is known about the fate of the document. The original manuscript found its way into the British Library after a circuitous route. According to the publishers: “A deed of sale written in a German rabbinic hand shows that it was sold in 1431 by Samuel b. Hayyim to Abraham b. Moses of Coburg. The manuscript probably left France when its owners were banished during the wave of persecution in 1306. By 1479 it had reached Mestre in Italy, and a little later it was in Venice…

“By the end of the fifteenth century it had made its way to north-eastern Italy and was re-bound in Modena, near Bologna, in the sixteenth century. The magnificent calf binding that still survives bears the arms of the Rovigo family, one of whose most eminent members, Rabbi Abraham b. Michael, a kabbalist writer, may have owned the manuscript. In the seventeenth century it was examined by a censor and later came into the possession of the Barberini family, whose famous golden-bee insignia can still be made out on the binding under a later decorative motif.

“It is unclear where the manuscript spent the intervening years, although Cardinal Richelieu, Louis XIV, Henry IV and Catherine de Medici all collected Hebrew manuscripts… The manuscript finally came into the possession of the Reina Library of Milan, and remained there until it was sold in 1839 by Maison Silvestre in Paris to Payne & Foss, and then on to the British Museum, where it became Additional Manuscript 11639.”

The reproduction of the manuscript is the result of years of work by the London-based husband-and-wife team, Michael and Linda Falter, who started and run Facsimile Editions Ltd. The company has produced precise copies – in limited editions – of 10 outstanding Hebrew manuscripts, among them: the Alba Bible, a 1430 translation of the Hebrew Bible into Castilian; the Kennicott Bible, a 1476 edition from northwestern Spain, considered the treasure of the Bodleian Library; the Rothschild Miscellany, a 948-page body of religious and secular works commissioned at the height of the Renaissance in Italy; Me’ah Berachot (One Hundred Blessings), a miniature prayer book handwritten and illuminated in Central Europe during the eighteenth century; and the Parma Psalter, a profusely illuminated book of Psalms written and decorated around 1280 in Northern Italy.

“This team is unquestionably the best in the world when it comes to producing facsimiles of Hebrew manuscripts,” says Dr. Binyamin Elizur of the Hebrew Language Academy. Elizur recounts that a senior researcher at the National Library, upon seeing the Rothschild Miscellany on a desk in the library, asked his supervisor how he could obtain the original.

“He couldn’t tell it was a copy. Anyone who has a copy of a manuscript produced by this firm has no need to see the original; they are virtually indistinguishable,” notes Elizur, who dated the Rothschild manuscript.

Producing such high-quality reproductions of ancient texts is a tedious ordeal. Before work could commence on the North French manuscript, the binding had to be “relaxed” so that the pages could be safely photographed flat without damaging the delicate stitching that holds the leaves together. The British Library’s senior conservator spent days removing the glues applied to the spine when the manuscript had been bound centuries ago. To ensure minirnum stress to the binding, a special cradle was constructed to support the volume during photography. All this was done under a controlled temperature and humidity setting to protect the manuscript’s leaves.

A special paper was milled to emulate as closely as possible the opacity, texture, and thickness of the original vellum. Natural wormholes, stains, and pricking in the original skin are faithfully reproduced in the facsimile, and pages were aged where necessary.

A special process was developed to enable craftsmen in srnall workshops to apply gold and silver leaf to each page by hand so as to simulate the metallic leaf found in the original.

The long production process – and limited edition of each volume – is reflected in the cost: Each of the 550 copies of the North French Hebrew Miscellany will sell for almost $9,000. Previous reproductions have ranged from $650 for the Rothschild Haggada to $26,000 for the Alba Bible. Who spends that kind of money on a copy of an old Hebrew book?

Libraries, of course. The facsimile editions are found in dozens of institutions, from Sydney to Santiago, Scotland to South Africa, where they can be studied by scholars. Oxford’s Bodleian, the British Library, Israel’s National Library, and the Israel Museum are regular clientele. The facsimile editions have also becorne a popular gift among statesmen. An Israeli minister gave US president Bill Clinton a Parma Psalter inscribed with a dedication from Psalms “How pleasant it is for brothers to dwell in unity.” Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was presented with a Kennicott Bible, as was former crown prince Hassan of Jordan.

King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sophia of Spain received a copy of the Alba Bible in 1992 to mark the king’s formal retraction of the order expelling the Jews from Spain 500 years earlier. Not all recipients are rich or famous.

Falter says the publications have become popular family gifts. One person wrote in his dedication: “A Gift from beyond the Grave,” and left it to his son in his will. Other ordinary people buy them to commemorate special events, or for donation to their synagogue. Most of the clientele are in the US, Israel, and the UK. Says Falter: “People often buy them to keep within the family.”

Making it real

Michael and Linda Falter, a Jewish couple from London, are the force behind Facsimile Editions Ltd.

Michael Falter is the third generation of a family which has worked in the printing industry since the late 1800s. During a stroll through the British Museum in the late Seventies, Falter saw two pages of a manuscript on display behind glass, and thought what a pity he couldn’t view the whole work. He wondered whether he might be able to use the antique presses given to him by his father to reproduce a Hebrew manuscript. He called a friend, Prof. David Patterson, director of the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies, who told him about the Kennicott Bible, and though it was a restricted manuscript, arranged for Michael to see it.

He and Linda Falter launched their partnership – in life and work – during a visit to Oxford’s Bodleian Library a few days later.

“On our first date he said to me: ‘I’m going to the Bodleian on Thursday. Would you like to come with me?'” recalls Linda.

“I said: ‘I’m sorry, I don’t drink’ – thinking he had said Bodley Inn!”

The two went to the library, fell in love with the Kennicott Bible and “before we knew it, we were on a path of no return,” continues Linda. ‘We soon set across Europe looking for printers, binders, and various experts who would be able to carry out such a complex book. It took us two years to convince the Bodleian that we could complete such a huge undertaking.

“Apparently, Oxford University Press had looked at the project and decided it was too complex.”

It took them more than five years to pro: duce their first facsimile, the Kennicott Bible. But upon completion of the work, the Bodleian Library – and other prestigious libraries – lauded their effort.

The couple, who are both Jewish, read Hebrew only haltingly.

“We may do a summer ulpan so that we are more fluent by the next Book Fair,” notes Linda.

North French Hebrew Miscellany

Medieval History Magazine – July 2004

This little treasure, only 161/2 x 121/2 cm (61/2″ x 51/2″) is a magnificent medieval volume, the most important Hebrew manuscript exhibited by the British Library. A facsimile edition has been produced to the highest possible standards by world leaders in this field Facsimile Editions, London.

The Background to The North French Miscellany

The Miscellany contains all that is important to a Jew, the Pentateuch and Haftarot (readings from the Prophets), the Song of Songs, together with biblical texts and prayers such as those for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

It also provides guidance on rituals regarding Tefillin, (phylacteries – consists of two leather boxes, containing four passages of the Torah, used by Jewish men at prayer) ritual slaughter, the Mezuzah, (parchment with two passages from Deuteronomy written on it, fixed to doorpost of a Jewish house)

Jewish law concerning marriage, divorce and even business partnerships! The volume also contains the Hebrew version of the Book of Tobit, an extremely rare text in medieval manuscripts.

The manuscript originated in northeast France, in the region of Picardy-Artois between 1278 and 1280. Philip III was king of France, having succeeded his father, Louis IX (Saint Louis), in 1270. Louis IX had imposed severe restrictions on Jews in 1219 forcing them to wear the Jewish badge, the rouelle. Philip imposed additional restrictions in 1277 forcing Jews to wear the horned, or `Jew’s’ Hat, in addition to the rouelle. This pictorial evidence dates the manuscript between 1278 and 1280. This date is further confirmed by the inclusion of the earliest known copy of Isaac de Corbeil’s Sefer Mitsvot Katan, a legal code composed in or around 1277.

The manuscript probably left France during a period of increasing Jewish persecution in 1306 reaching Mestre in Italy by 1479 and eventually arriving in Venice. No one knows exactly what happened to the manuscript after that. Catherine de Medici, Louis XIV, Cardinal Richelieu and Henry IV were all enthusiastic collectors of Hebrew manuscripts and perhaps the manuscript was owned by one of these.

The Scribe and the Artwork

Some researchers believe that Benjamin the Scribe, see Folio 306 verso was the sole copyist creating the manuscript for his own use. If this is correct then Benjamin must have been extremely wealthy, since the finest artists were employed and no expense spared. It seems inconceivable that a single scribe could afford to create something so luxurious. Many Jews of the time manufactured silk, sold cloth or manufactured wine from their own vineyards so perhaps Benjamin was a wealthy merchant. It is interesting that Benjamin, having indicated in his colophon that he was the sole scribe, gives no insight as to whom the patron, if there was one, could have been.

The volume contains 49 full page miniatures depicting biblical scenes. It provides pictorial evidence of social conditions and is ultimately a very fine piece of artwork. Almost all of its 1,494 folios are illustrated with grotesques, flowers, arabesques, animals, fishes and birds in the High Gothic style. The Miscellany bears witness to the extremely high standards achieved by the creators of Ashkenazi Hebrew manuscripts at this time.

Folio 354v demonstrates the unity between the written word and magnificent artwork. The page is divided into three columns. One column is enclosed in a lavishly decorated box surrounded by angels, winged animals and grotesques. Within the boxed column the important words are enlarged to double line height and heavily underlined with gilded embossments. In the third column the gilded heading emerges from the mouth of a fictitious animal.

Folio 522r, the Tabernacle Implements, is presented within a gold medallion. The Ark of the Covenant is flanked by two cherubim. At the bottom of the illustration is the Table of Shewbread. To the right is the jar of manna. This is a very rare depiction of the Tabernacle implements and so far as is known does not appear anywhere else in Ashkenazi manuscripts. It comes from the tradition of Spanish bibles.

A sense of humour is visible throughout the manuscript. On Folio 355r marginal decorations serve not only to emphasise the important words, but also to display the artist’s mischievous sense of fun. In the top right-hand corner there is a strange creature with a human face wearing a pointed hat, a reference to the restrictions on Jews at that time.

The Production of the Facsimile

The extraordinary frailty of the original made its reproduction a very delicate operation. Using extreme caution the manuscript was prepared by experts at the British Library. Every page was photographed and great care taken to ensure exact colour matching between the original and the facsimile.

The facsimile is printed on uncoated, neutral pH vegetable parchment, specially manufactured to be as close as possible in weight and thickness to the original skins.

The raised burnished gold leaf of the original has been faithfully reproduced. Gold and silver metal leaf was applied layer by layer and then each folio was cut to match the original and aged where necessary. Where Benjamin’s prickings have survived these have been reproduced together with natural holes present in the skins on their original purchase.

The facsimile is accompanied by a companion volume containing articles commissioned from the world’s leading experts. These provide in-depth explanations of all 84 groups of texts plus facts relating to the manuscript’s original creation. This is the most thorough study of the Miscellany undertaken to date.

Only 360 copies of the facsimile and its companion have been produced and the photographic plates have now been destroyed to guarantee the fidelity of the facsimile.

Frances Spiegel B.A. (Hons.) Dip. Eur. Hum

Adding new gold to the Rothschild Miscellany

Philadelphia Jewish Exponent – January 15 1988

By HELEN DAVIS

JERUSALEM — Five hundred years ago, at the height of the Renaissance, a wealthy Italian Jew, Moses ben Yekutiel Hacohen, gathered around him some of Italy’s finest scribes, artists and craftsmen.

His intention was to create the most elegant, lavishly illustrated Hebrew manuscript of the era —a work to rival the sumptuous manuscripts being commissioned by the Roman Catholic aristocracy of Italy.

The result was a masterpiece, an exquisite miscellany of Jewish religious and secular life. The book includes the daily and festival prayers, the books of Psalms, Job and Proverbs, the Passover Haggadah, Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), fables, moralistic stories and treatises.

No one knows what became of Moses Hacohen, but his magnificent miscellany, which was probably written around 1470, survived him.

From 1832 to 1855, the manuscript was in the Soloman de Parente collection in Trieste, Italy. Later, it was sold to the Rothschild family in Paris, where it remained until it was looted during the Nazi occupation.

The manuscript — now known as the Rothschild Miscellany — reappeared in New York after the war when an attempt was made to sell it to Alexander Marx, librarian of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Marx instantly recognized the manuscript as one of the treasures of the Rothschild collection and had it restored to the family in London.

In 1957, James de Rothschild sent the miscellany to Israel, as a gift to Jerusalem, and the original is now in the Israel Museum.

Enter — half a millennium after Moses ben Yekutiel Hacohen — Michael and Linda Falter, a young Jewish couple from London with a passion for ancient, illuminated manuscripts.

The Falters had fallen in love with the Rothschild Miscellany and they determined to produce a facsimile edition that would be as faithful to the priceless original as possible, using the finest human skills and the most advanced technology available.

Moreover, the Israel Museum was delighted to cooperate for the enthusiastic Falters had already won themselves a remarkable reputation within the rarified world of collectors, scholars and custodians of ancient, illuminated manuscripts.

In June 1985, after five years of painstaking research, they had produced a magnificent facsimile edition of the famous Kennicott Hebrew Bible, which was written and illustrated in La Coruna, Spain, in 1476, shortly before the Inquisition and expulsion of Spanish Jewry.

The Kennicott Bible — so named after Benjamin Kennicott, an English Christian Hebraist — is one of the jewels of the famous Bodleian Library in Oxford, England.

The 500-year-old original manuscript is so frail, and of such immense value, that only 20 art historians and scholars over the past 200 years have been allowed to even study it.

Michael and Linda Falter saw the Kennicott Bible just once, by special arrangement, and immediately decided to create a facsimile edition.

“We didn’t actually decide to create a facsimile,” said Linda Falter. “The Bible decided for us. It was something beautiful that took you away from the nastiness of every day; a lovely thing to be involved in.

“But the challenge of reproducing it without the skills that were available to the creators of the original was formidable.”

Equally formidable was the task of convincing the Bodleian Library and the Board of Oxford University to give the untried Falters a contract to produce the facsimile — and permission to photograph the bible’s 922 pages through optical white glass that was manufactured specially for the project.

Through sheer perseverance and abundant energy, the couple succeeded. It took them a year to find an Italian paper manufacturer who; after much trial, error and expensive research, could mill for them a special paper with a thickness, translucence and “feel” almost identical to the original calfskin vellum.

Then came the search for a printer capable of handling the extraordinarily difficult task of reproducing precisely the Hebrew text and the 11-color illustrations.

Michael Falter, 39, is himself a third-generation printer. He knew the difficulties involved and he scoured Europe for months until he finally found a craftsman in Milan whose work “was astounding.”

But even the gifted Italian craftsman could not find a short cut to applying gold leaf to 12,090 pages of manuscript.

“We finally came to the conclusion,” says Michael Falter, “that the only way to apply gold so that it would feel like the original was the way it was applied to the original —by hand. And that’s just what we did.”

The final problem to overcome was to reproduce the opulent, six-sided, box-binding that had sustained the original Kennicott Bible, keeping it virtually airtight for 500 years.

Britain’s top binderies tried, and failed, to reproduce the original to the Falter’s exacting standards: “We got to the point,” says Linda Falter, “where we nearly gave up.”

They were financing all the trials and research themselves, costs were exorbitant, and the results disappointing.

Once again, it was an Italian who came to the rescue. He produced, just from a photograph, a binding of Moroccan goatskin stretched over wooden boards, embossed with handcut brass dies and faithful to the original in every detail.

When the Kennicott facsimile was finally produced, the limited edition of 550 copies became an instant collectors’ item. The price of the work reflected the superb craftsmanship and beauty of the product.

Before it was actually published, collectors could order the facsimile for a price of $2,900. By the time of publication, it had risen to $3,900, and today, with but a few remaining on the market, economic forces have pushed up the price to around $5,500.

The Kennicott Bibles have become prized additions to private collections throughout the world — the Japanese Royal Family bought 10 —and have been purchased by major universities in Britain, Europe, the United States and Australia.

According to Dr. Martin Brett, a medieval historian at Cambridge University, the superbly produced facsimiles give scholars and the general public access to ancient, priceless works, allowing them to “adore without destroying.”

“Some of these priceless works simply fall apart in your hands,” he says. “You feel their bindings crack — it’s a very uneasy feeling.

“Expertly produced facsimiles solve that problem. Scholars won’t have to keep referring to the original.”

Having proved their ability to faithfully reproduce exquisite manuscripts, the Falters are now faced with an embarrassment of riches. Museums and libraries all over the world are offering their most precious manuscripts for facsimile.

The Rothschild Miscellany, however, was a natural choice for their next venture. An astounding 816 of its 948 pages are richly illuminated and decorated with burnished, flat and powdered gold and silver.

While the Falters and their Italian craftsmen have mastered the basic techniques of facsimile production, the Rothschild Miscellany, which will be published in June, has demanded a great deal of additional research and technical development.

The Falters moved to Milan with their two infant sons to supervise every stage of production, which includes the meticulous checking of each page against the original manuscript in Jerusalem.

They are confident that the finished product — with a pre-publication price of $4,900, rising to some $6,300 after publication — reflect the same devotion to perfection that was poured into its creation 500 years ago.

Moses ben Yekutiel Hacohen would surely have approved.

Adding new gold to the Rothschild Miscellany

Philadelphia Jewish Exponent – January 15 1988

By HELEN DAVIS

JERUSALEM — Five hundred years ago, at the height of the Renaissance, a wealthy Italian Jew, Moses ben Yekutiel Hacohen, gathered around him some of Italy’s finest scribes, artists and craftsmen.

His intention was to create the most elegant, lavishly illustrated Hebrew manuscript of the era —a work to rival the sumptuous manuscripts being commissioned by the Roman Catholic aristocracy of Italy.

The result was a masterpiece, an exquisite miscellany of Jewish religious and secular life. The book includes the daily and festival prayers, the books of Psalms, Job and Proverbs, the Passover Haggadah, Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), fables, moralistic stories and treatises.

No one knows what became of Moses Hacohen, but his magnificent miscellany, which was probably written around 1470, survived him.

From 1832 to 1855, the manuscript was in the Soloman de Parente collection in Trieste, Italy. Later, it was sold to the Rothschild family in Paris, where it remained until it was looted during the Nazi occupation.

The manuscript — now known as the Rothschild Miscellany — reappeared in New York after the war when an attempt was made to sell it to Alexander Marx, librarian of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Marx instantly recognized the manuscript as one of the treasures of the Rothschild collection and had it restored to the family in London.

In 1957, James de Rothschild sent the miscellany to Israel, as a gift to Jerusalem, and the original is now in the Israel Museum.

Enter — half a millennium after Moses ben Yekutiel Hacohen — Michael and Linda Falter, a young Jewish couple from London with a passion for ancient, illuminated manuscripts.

The Falters had fallen in love with the Rothschild Miscellany and they determined to produce a facsimile edition that would be as faithful to the priceless original as possible, using the finest human skills and the most advanced technology available.

Moreover, the Israel Museum was delighted to cooperate for the enthusiastic Falters had already won themselves a remarkable reputation within the rarified world of collectors, scholars and custodians of ancient, illuminated manuscripts.

In June 1985, after five years of painstaking research, they had produced a magnificent facsimile edition of the famous Kennicott Hebrew Bible, which was written and illustrated in La Coruna, Spain, in 1476, shortly before the Inquisition and expulsion of Spanish Jewry.

The Kennicott Bible — so named after Benjamin Kennicott, an English Christian Hebraist — is one of the jewels of the famous Bodleian Library in Oxford, England.

The 500-year-old original manuscript is so frail, and of such immense value, that only 20 art historians and scholars over the past 200 years have been allowed to even study it.

Michael and Linda Falter saw the Kennicott Bible just once, by special arrangement, and immediately decided to create a facsimile edition.

“We didn’t actually decide to create a facsimile,” said Linda Falter. “The Bible decided for us. It was something beautiful that took you away from the nastiness of every day; a lovely thing to be involved in.

“But the challenge of reproducing it without the skills that were available to the creators of the original was formidable.”

Equally formidable was the task of convincing the Bodleian Library and the Board of Oxford University to give the untried Falters a contract to produce the facsimile — and permission to photograph the bible’s 922 pages through optical white glass that was manufactured specially for the project.

Through sheer perseverance and abundant energy, the couple succeeded. It took them a year to find an Italian paper manufacturer who; after much trial, error and expensive research, could mill for them a special paper with a thickness, translucence and “feel” almost identical to the original calfskin vellum.

Then came the search for a printer capable of handling the extraordinarily difficult task of reproducing precisely the Hebrew text and the 11-color illustrations.

Michael Falter, 39, is himself a third-generation printer. He knew the difficulties involved and he scoured Europe for months until he finally found a craftsman in Milan whose work “was astounding.”

But even the gifted Italian craftsman could not find a short cut to applying gold leaf to 12,090 pages of manuscript.

“We finally came to the conclusion,” says Michael Falter, “that the only way to apply gold so that it would feel like the original was the way it was applied to the original —by hand. And that’s just what we did.”

The final problem to overcome was to reproduce the opulent, six-sided, box-binding that had sustained the original Kennicott Bible, keeping it virtually airtight for 500 years.

Britain’s top binderies tried, and failed, to reproduce the original to the Falter’s exacting standards: “We got to the point,” says Linda Falter, “where we nearly gave up.”

They were financing all the trials and research themselves, costs were exorbitant, and the results disappointing.

Once again, it was an Italian who came to the rescue. He produced, just from a photograph, a binding of Moroccan goatskin stretched over wooden boards, embossed with handcut brass dies and faithful to the original in every detail.

When the Kennicott facsimile was finally produced, the limited edition of 550 copies became an instant collectors’ item. The price of the work reflected the superb craftsmanship and beauty of the product.

Before it was actually published, collectors could order the facsimile for a price of $2,900. By the time of publication, it had risen to $3,900, and today, with but a few remaining on the market, economic forces have pushed up the price to around $5,500.

The Kennicott Bibles have become prized additions to private collections throughout the world — the Japanese Royal Family bought 10 —and have been purchased by major universities in Britain, Europe, the United States and Australia.

According to Dr. Martin Brett, a medieval historian at Cambridge University, the superbly produced facsimiles give scholars and the general public access to ancient, priceless works, allowing them to “adore without destroying.”

“Some of these priceless works simply fall apart in your hands,” he says. “You feel their bindings crack — it’s a very uneasy feeling.

“Expertly produced facsimiles solve that problem. Scholars won’t have to keep referring to the original.”

Having proved their ability to faithfully reproduce exquisite manuscripts, the Falters are now faced with an embarrassment of riches. Museums and libraries all over the world are offering their most precious manuscripts for facsimile.

The Rothschild Miscellany, however, was a natural choice for their next venture. An astounding 816 of its 948 pages are richly illuminated and decorated with burnished, flat and powdered gold and silver.

While the Falters and their Italian craftsmen have mastered the basic techniques of facsimile production, the Rothschild Miscellany, which will be published in June, has demanded a great deal of additional research and technical development.

The Falters moved to Milan with their two infant sons to supervise every stage of production, which includes the meticulous checking of each page against the original manuscript in Jerusalem.

They are confident that the finished product — with a pre-publication price of $4,900, rising to some $6,300 after publication — reflect the same devotion to perfection that was poured into its creation 500 years ago.

Moses ben Yekutiel Hacohen would surely have approved.

The Rothschilds Reunited

Women’s League Outlook – Fall 1989

Dr. Lynne Heller

In the spring of 1950, Dr. Alexander Marx, Librarian of the Jewish Theological Seminary, received an intriguing letter from a Berlin book dealer who was offering for sale to the Library an Italian 15th century, illuminated Hebrew manuscript of extraordinary quality. Enclosed were photographs and a detailed listing of the contents. Fascinated by the offering, Dr. Marx immediately cabled the book dealer to send the volume on approval. Thus began a tangled tale of four cities involving extensive detective work, correspondence and the search for stolen art, culminating in a lawsuit involving the Seminary and an international cast of characters.

When the volume arrived, Marx was overwhelmed by its unsurpassed beauty. Here was a remarkable compendium of Jewish knowledge and prayer: treatises on astronomy, philosophy, mathematics; moralistic fables akin to Aesop; Psalms, Job and Proverbs, all with commentary; daily Sabbath and holiday prayers; entries on Purim and Hanukkah, including narration from the second Book of the Maccabees; Pirkay Avot; moral poems for children; a perpetual calendar; poems for weddings, birthdays and other occasions; and the text of the Haggadah. In all, more than 50 religious and secular works were bound in the more than 800 vellum pages. There were 222 exquisite miniatures, over 500 ornamental titles, and countless illuminations. Unquestionably one of the finest examples of an illuminated Hebrew manuscript, the Miscellany was a sumptuous work of art encompassing in minute detail virtually every custom of secular and religious Jewish life.

But Dr. Marx was troubled. A renowned scholar, he had recalled seeing reproductions of a few of the pages of the Haggadah in an obscure bibliographic text written in 1898 and had read an account of the entire manuscript in a 1930 French periodical, Revue des Etudes Juives. Dr. Marx inquired of the Berlin book dealer regarding the provenance of the work. The dealer responded forthrightly: “The ms. has been given to me by a country squire who wishes to remain anonymous. The owner has given a written statement that the ms. is in the possession of his family since a long time.”

Now Dr. Marx was suspicious, for the article in the French periodical had attributed the work to the Rothschild collection. It had been explicitly catalogued as “Ms. Edmund de Rothschild, Paris, No. 24”!

During the summer months, detailed correspondence was exchanged between Dr. Marx and authorities in London, Paris and New York, as he persevered in his attempt to document the rightful ownership of the Miscellany. Marx wrote to Hannah Arendt, Executive Secretary of Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc., an international umbrella organization whose constituent members included: Alliance Israelite Universelle; American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee; Board of Deputies of British Jews; Commission of European Jewish Cultural Reconstruction; Committee on Restoration of Continental Museums, Libraries and Archives; Conseil Representatif des Juifs de France; Council of Jews from Germany; Hebrew University; World Jewish Congress; and the Jewish Agency for Palestine. One of the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction’s representatives in Wiesbaden reported that, initially, Baron James de Rothschild (the son of Baron Edmund) was “very reluctant to give a definite reply to queries on the question of whether or not any of his most valuable mss. might be missing.” He quoted a reliable source in Paris who suggested that perhaps Rothschild did not want to divulge family holdings. In actuality, Rothschild’s hesitancy may have stemmed from the fact that he could not identify the Miscellany because he himself had never seen it.

Early in the summer, Dr. Marx turned for legal advice and counsel to Alan Stroock, an eminent New York attorney. As Chairman of the Board of the Seminary, Stroock wrote directly to Baron James de Rothschild in London, formally informing him of the disposition of the manuscript and of Dr. Marx’s suspicions concerning its ownership.

Stroock sought to enlist Baron Rothschild’s aid in identifying the manuscript, stating unequivocally that, while the Seminary was anxious to purchase the Miscellany, under no circumstances would it enter into a transaction involving stolen art.

Rothschild, in turn, contacted Andre Blum in Paris, who had been the librarian/curator of the collection of his father, Baron Edmund de Rothschild. Blum confirmed (letter dated July 21) that he had personally catalogued the manuscript as number 24, but that, unfortunately, all of his records and notes relating to the collection had been stolen during the Occupation. This correspondence was forwarded to Dr. Marx at the Seminary.

The final evidence arrived in a letter from Eugene Weill, Secretary General of the Alliance Israelite Universelle in Paris, to Hannah Arendt (which she forwarded to Marx on August 11). In it Weill identified the manuscript as #24, “probablement le plus precieux volume de toute la collection ROTHSCHILD.” The manuscript, indeed, the most precious volume in the entire collection, had been stolen by the Nazis; it belonged to the Rothschild family and appeared on the French list of the Commission de Recuperation Artistique as being claimed by James de Rothschild, Edmund’s son.

Under the circumstances, the Seminary could not purchase a stolen work of art, nor would they return it to the book dealer, who, in the meantime, was impatiently chafing at the bit because Marx had not yet responded to the original offer of sale.

How could the Seminary insure the legal return of the manuscript to its rightful owner?

The Seminary’s only recourse, according to Stroock’s considered opinion, would be to have Rothschild file a replevin suit (an action to try the right to ownership of the manuscript) in the Supreme Court of New York, with the Seminary as defendant. On the advice of Stroock, Dr. Marx informed the Berlin book dealer of these developments and of the Seminary’s legal intentions. The book dealer, who claimed to be of Jewish origin, responded immediately, “I ask you to believe me that I am most anxious to have the matter fully clarified, not only because of my personal sense of Justice, but because of the reputation of my firm that has been in existence for 50 years.” Repeated attempts on his part to contact the German “owner” were unsuccessful.

Baron de Rothschild retained a lawyer in New York; the case was brought before Judge Samuel H. Hofstadter of the New York State Supreme Court. In default of any evidence from the purported German owner, the judge ruled in favor of Rothschild on February 23, 1951, and ordered the return of the Miscellany. The book dealer was not implicated. To protect his integrity, the Seminary never divulged his identity.

The Seminary was to remain custodian of the manuscript until it could be delivered in person to Rothschild in London. During the interim, Marx tried through several channels to persuade Rothschild to allow the Miscellany to remain in the Seminary Library, either on permanent loan or through outright purchase. In a letter to Rothschild he wrote poignantly: “On the one hand, I am very happy to have been instrumental in identifying the manuscript as your property . . . On the other hand, I, as well as my colleagues . . . here have become so attached to the volume that, after giving it eleven months of temporary asylum, we find it difficult to part with it.”

Curiously, it was Rothschild’s wife, the Baroness Dorothy de Rothschild, who responded in a handwritten note thanking Dr. Marx for all his efforts on behalf of the family but apologizing that her husband could not accede to his request. It was the Baron’s wish that the Miscellany go to Israel, and it is now in the Israel National Museum in Jerusalem.

Dr. Marx must have been dealt a crushing blow by the letter. He had no choice but to comply with Rothschild’s wishes. In March 1952, on his way to Israel, Dr. Marx stopped in London to deliver the Miscellany to Baron Rothschild personally.

Marx, the persistent and learned detective, did not live to savor the fruits of his labor. The final chapter of the story was written in 1966, when Baron Edmund, the grandson of the Baron Edmund de Rothschild of the French side of the family, personally presented to the Seminary Library the Rothschild Mahzor, another magnificent 15th century illuminated treasure from the family collection. Bound in its original velvet cloth, it, too, is an exquisite example of Italian High Renaissance manuscript art. At the formal ceremony, Baron Edmund de Rothschild expressed his sorrow concerning the fire which had ravaged the Seminary Library and recalled with deep gratitude Dr. Marx’s effort in restoring the Miscellany to his family.

A final postscript: In 1985, Michael Falter of Facsimile Editions in London was granted permission by the Israel National Museum to have the Rothschild Miscellany disbound. In a process painstakingly developed by him and artisans in Milan, he has produced on parchment a facsimile edition of the Miscellany, true to size, hand bound on parchment with hand-applied silver and gold leaf. Four years in production, the facsimile has now been completed in a signed and numbered limited edition. The Seminary Library has purchased one, through the generous gift of Chairman of the Friends of the Library, Francine Klagsbrun, her husband, Dr. Samuel Klagsbrun, and her brother, Robert Lifton.

This Rosh HaShanah, the Rothschild manuscripts will finally be united under one roof – in the Rare Book Room of the Seminary Library – in their original Italian splendor.

OUTLOOK wishes to express gratitude to Dr. Mayer Rabinowitz, Seminary Librarian, for permission to reproduce photographs of the Rothschild Mahzor from the Seminary collection and to publish material from the archives of Dr. Alexander Marx; to Evelyn Cohen, Curator of Jewish Art; to Rabbi Jerry Schwartzbard , Special Collections Librarian; and to Dr. Menachem Schmelzer (who was Seminary Librarian when the Mahzor was acquired) for their assistance and cooperation in researching this article. The Rothschild Mahzor will be on public view at the Jewish Museum in New York City, beginning September 17, as part of the new exhibit: “Gardens and Ghettos: The Art of Jewish Life in Italy.”

Dr. Lynne Heller is Editor of OUTLOOK. Her ongoing study of illuminated manuscripts developed when she was enrolled at ITS in a Women’s League Institute course on Illuminated Hebrew Manuscripts, taught by Evelyn Cohen.

De l’Esclavage à la Liberté

Shalom – Avril 1990/Pessah 5750 – Vol. VIII

par le Rabbin Adin Steinsaltz, Jérusalem*

La Sortie d’Égypte est l’un des moments les plus décisifs que le Peuple Juif ait jamais connu dans son histoire. Non seulement l’Exode donne-t-il sa signification profonde à la fête de Pessah, mais encore occupe-t-il une place centrale dans presque toutes les fêtes juives, la pratique de nombreux commandements et l’ensemble de la littérature; tous nos rites ne sont-ils pas accomplis «en commémoration de la Sortie d’Égypte» ?

Cette importance pluridimensionnelle accordée à l’Exode permet d’étendre sa signification historique à un sens plus large. En effet, cet événement domine l’histoire juive, témoigne de la présence divine au sein du Peuple juif et constitue un élément de base nécessaire à la survie de celui-ci. La Sortie d’Égypte servira de modèle de référence pour les générations futures du peuple d’Israël. «Dans chaque génération, l’individu doit considérer qu’il a personnellement pris part à l’Exode». L’évocation quotidienne de cet événement dans nos prières, la répétition constante de la commémoration de ce miracle nous démontrent que, bien qu’historiquement le fait soit unique, il a une portée quasi éternelle dans la vie du peuple et de l’individu juifs.

«Souviens-toi du jour de la Sortie d’Égypte pendant toute ta vie». Ce verset nous enseigne le devoir de répéter et d’étudier l’Exode. Nous avons l’obligation d’en prolonger la portée jusque dans notre propre réalité, quelle que soit la génération dans laquelle nous vivons. Ainsi, au fil des générations nous répétons: «Nous étions esclaves de Pharaon et D’ nous a fait sortir de ce pays» pour nous rappeler que l’individu qui n’accomplit pas son propre acte de «sortie» garde éternellement le statut d’esclave de Pharaon, abstraction faite de l’époque à laquelle il vit et de l’endroit où il se trouve.

NOUS ÉTIONS DES ESCLAVES

«Nous étions des esclaves de Pharaon en Égypte». De prime abord, le concept de l’esclavage peut paraître fort simple à définir. Le cliché de l’esclave souffrant, humilié, battu et même torturé est tellement bien gravé dans nos esprits que le véritable sens de l’esclavage nous échappe. Certes, l’image de l’esclave soumis à son labeur et maltraité par des gardes reste vraie. L’esclave bénéficie d’une rému- nération minime en comparaison de son pénible travail. Mais l’esclavage doit-il véritablement et uniquement être compris dans ce sens ? Dans le monde actuel l’homme – à quelques exceptions près – se démène pour assurer sa survie matérielle. D’ailleurs de tout temps, l’homme fut contraint de travailler de toutes ses forces pour ne rapporter chez lui que le strict nécessaire à l’entretien de sa famille. De même que les travaux forcés ne définissent pas l’esclavage, l’abondance matérielle n’est pas synonyme de liberté. Esclavage signifie avant tout exécution du travail par l’esclave pour autrui. Celui-ci n’est plus maître de ses décisions et ne peut plus exprimer sa volonté. Il devient un simple outil de travail et perd sa véritable identité.

Pharaon abhorre l’idée d’une collectivité d’Israël puissante à l’intérieur de l’Égypte; il exprime sa crainte d’assister au renforcement moral du Peuple Juif quant à son identité et son indépendance d’esprit en disant: «Et le peuple quittera le pays d’Égypte». Pour éviter que celui-ci ne soit gagné par un esprit d’indépendance, Pharaon s’ingénie à l’occuper par des tâches servant uniquement les intérêts égyptiens. Ainsi le Peuple Juif répond-il au critère d’un groupe d’esclaves, qui n’existe que par son travail pour autrui, en l’occurrence les Égyptiens. Même si, après leur libération du joug égyptien et leur arrivée en Eretz Israël, les Juifs se voient contraints d’accomplir de lourds travaux dans un pays où pourtant «coulent le lait et le miel», ils agissent en tant qu’êtres libérés physiquement et mentalement, car tout ce qu’ils font, ils le font par eux-mêmes et pour eux-mêmes. La différence est absolument fondamentale. Malheureusement, on ne peut affirmer que la Sortie d’Égypte ait mis une fin absolue à l’état d’esclavage du Peuple Juif: le peuple d’Israël lors de ses périodes d’exil – parfois même sur sa propre terre – continue de vivre sous la menace d’un asservissement extérieur.

«SERVIR L’ÉTERNEL DANS LE DÉSERT»

Chaque fois que Moïse et Aaron se présentent devant Pharaon pour le supplier de laisser partir le Peuple Juif, ils expriment le désir de leur peuple de servir l’Éternel dans le désert. Les négociations tournent toujours autour de ce même point. A première vue, ce désir peut passer pour un simple prétexte. Le peuple d’Israël veut quitter l’Égypte et invente une raison plausible pour justifier son intention. Il n’en est pas ainsi. Cet argument fait très clairement ressortir le caractère inhérent à la Sortie d’Égypte, la voie menant de l’esclavage à la délivrance. Pharaon réalise parfaitement que l’acte de volonté de servir D’ rompt les chaînes de l’esclavage. Les vrais esclaves ne possèdent pas leur propre D’. En outre, l’esclave ne devrait pas avoir d’autres obligations que d’accomplir son travail, c’est-à-dire de servir son maître et se plier entièrement à la volonté de celui-ci. Mais aussitôt que l’esclave découvre l’existence d’un Seigneur dominant son maître, un Être Suprême qu’il a le devoir de servir, il cesse d’être esclave dans son for intérieur. Bien qu’il soit possible de soumettre des hommes à des travaux forcés pendant une période prolongée, les travaux de ce type n’entrent plus tout à fait dans la définition de l’esclavage. La révolte nécessaire à la libération est un processus lent dont la réussite est assurée à condition que l’esclave persévère dans sa volonté de servir l’Éternel dans le désert. A juste titre, Pharaon reconnaît que la volonté de servir D’ annonce le relâchement de l’esclavage et décide donc au moyen de travaux forcés, d’une part de réprimer le sentiment nationaliste des Juifs et. d’autre part. de les opprimer moralement. La Sortie d’Égypte à proprement parler ne représente pas une menace, mais elle n’exclut pas l’esclavage. Il y a déjà véritable libération du moment que la volonté de partir avec un but bien défini existe – à distinguer de la volonté de fuir les travaux forcés. Cette aspiration au départ signifie le rejet d’un mode de vie d’autrui, d’une morale imposée et de ses valeurs. Les diverses tentatives entreprises par le Peuple Juif pour échapper à l’exil ne menèrent à aucune véritable délivrance. L’homme qui ne possède pas d’identité ni de personnalité et qui n’a pas son propre D’ reste esclave. La libération inclut l’existence d’un système de valeurs indépendant, où l’absence de l’esclavage est sans doute significative, mais n’est que le début de la liberté. La rupture du joug égyptien n’entraîne pas nécessairement une vraie délivrance, le Peuple Juif y parvient par le reniement de l’Égyptien et de son système de valeurs. L’importance de la Sortie d’Égypte se traduit par le culte rendu à D’ dans le désert. Une fois la voie de son mode de vie tracée, nettement distincte de l’esclavage, le Peuple Juif accède à la liberté.

ENTRE PHARAON ET LE DÉSERT

La Sortie d’Égypte, passage de l’esclavage à la liberté, est un long processus. Lorsque finalement le Peuple Juif sort d’Égypte avec ses propres chefs et ses propres armes, la délivrance pourrait être considérée comme complète. Mais l’heure de la vérité ne tarde pas à sonner au moment où le peuple se trouve en situation de détresse. Il apparaît subitement que ceux qui réagissent avec une mentalité d’asservis restent victimes de cet état même après avoir fui l’esclavage. Où est donc l’esprit de fierté ? Où est le sentiment de confiance en soi ? Le peuple demeure un peuple d’esclaves, car il exprime clairement sa nostalgie de l’assujettissement lors de situations difficiles. L’incapacité de mener une vie indépendante et l’échec d’une délivrance intérieure sont frappants. Il devient insensé pour le Peuple Juif, un peuple d’esclaves. da vouloir mener une guerre contre Pharaon et d’errer dans le désert. car ces actes requièrent un esprit d’indépendance totale.

La libération à part entière et la maturité engendrent la volonté d’atteindre l’impossible. Le miracle en est la conséquence. Mais, pour que le peuple mérite d’assister au miracle, il doit être prêt à mettre sa liberté en jeu. Ce n’est que lorsqu’on risque l’impossible qu’on le rend possible.

* Le Rabbin Adin Steinsaltz est considéré comme l’une des plus éminentes autorités rabbiniques de notre époque. Auteur de nombreux ouvrages, il consacre aujourd’hui sa vie à la diffusion du Talmud dont il a déjà traduit vingt volumes de l’araméen en hébreu, y incluant ponctuation et intonations. Il travaille actuellement à une version anglaise et il est question de publier une édition en russe. Il poursuit ses travaux dans le cadre de l’lsrael Institute for Talmud Publications à Jérusalem. En 1988, le Rabbin Adin Steinsaltz a été invité à ouvrir l’Institut d’Études Juives à Moscou. Il a par ailleurs enseigné à Yale University et à Princeton.

Bodleian’s unbroken Hebraica tradition

Jewish Chronicle – July 1 1988

Richard Judd – Assistant librarian, Bodleian Library

The Prince of Wales is guest of honour at a dinner at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, next Tuesday to launch a £12 million appeal to renovate and modernise the library and endow new appointments to its research staff. Presiding over the dinner will be Lord Jenkins, Chancellor of Oxford University.

THE ORIGINS of the great collec­tions of the world, in Hebraica just as in other subjects, usually lie in the efforts of individual collectors.

After a lifetime of single-minded collecting, the individual decides to place his treasurers in an institu­tion so that they can be preserved intact. Or sometimes, after his death, his family present the collec­tion so that it can be named after him.

The Bodleian Library in Oxford has received benefactions in many subjects through such channels, but its Hebraica collection is unique in that it was a principal constituent of the library from the outset.

At first sight, it may seem odd that such a substantial collection of Jewish books should have been started in 1600, when officially there were no Jews in England. But Sir Thomas Bodley, who refounded the university library in 1598, was a type of man now almost, though not entirely, extinct.

A fervent Protestant, he was an accomplished linguist who knew the classical and modern languages, “but Hebrew particularly, the parent of all the others.”

It is astonishing how many Hebrew books arc listed in the first catalogue of the library, printed in 1605; they arc overwhelmingly from Venice, where Hebrew printing was then in its prime.

Bodley took a detailed personal interest in these books, and one can still see at the end of the catalogue a page largely in Latin where he indignantly corrects some misprints in Hebrew.

The continued policy of collecting Hebrew material bore sensational fruit in 1693, when the library purchased two different collections which still attract a continuous stream of Jewish readers.

Item 80 in the collection of manuscripts bought from Dr Robert Huntingdon is Maimonides’ “Mish­neh Torah,” with the author’s signature, attesting that the text had been corrected. against his original.

This manuscript is supremely important both for historical reasons and for the accuracy of its text; it is treated with great reverence by scholarly readers. Huntington bought it while acting as chaplain to English merchants in Aleppo.

A second Maimonides manuscript, this one in his own hand­writing throughout, came as number 295 of the 420 manuscripts bought from Professor Edward Pococke, the Regius Professor of Hebrew. It is the “Commentary on the Mishna,” containing the tractates Nezikin and Kiddushin.

It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of these manuscripts for establishing the correct text, particularly since autographs of any medieval Jewish scholar are exceedingly scarce. It is sobering to reflect that, for both collections„ comprising 1,020 manuscripts in all, the university paid only £1,300.

One of the most sumptuous Hebrew illuminated manuscripts in existence, and a masterpiece of medieval Sephardic art, came to the library in bizarre circumstances in 1771.

A young gentleman, Patrick Chalmers, entered the library car­rying a Hebrew Bible written in 1476. Dr Benjamin Kennicott imme­diately recognised its importance and bought it for £52.10s.

The Bible had been copied by Moses Ibn Zabarah and lavishly illustrated by Joseph Ibn Hayyim on behalf of their patron, Isaac di Braga. It was truly an exquisite production, an exact facsimile of which was published in London in 1985. No one has any idea where the original lay between 1492 and 1771.

In 1829 an event occurred which was to turn the Bodleian Library into a depository for the most important and magnificant Hebraica collection ever accumulated. This was the purchase of the famous Oppenheimer Library for £2,080, a price later described as “the best bargain in the history of bookselling.”

Rabbi David ben Abraham Oppenheimer (1664-1736) was the Chief Rabbi of Prague, who devoted more than half a century to building up his library. A bibliophile fromhis early youth, he went on long journeys to obtain rare manuscripts or books.

Oppenheimer visited the fairs at Leipzig, was in close touch with printers and dealers and spent lavishly from his great wealth (inherited and received from his wives). He collected manuscripts with a view to subsidising their publication.

After his death, however, the collection was the subject of litigation, being held in storage in 28 crates in a Hamburg warehouse. This deeply concerned the scholars of the Wissenschaft des Judentums, particularly Leopold Zunz, but no one could be found who was willing to donate the collection to a library.

Although Moses Mendelssohn had valued it at between 50,000 and 60,000 thalers, it was finally sold for the ridiculously low sum of 9,000 thalers (the £2,080 in question) to the Bodleian Library.

This collection, of over 5,000 books and manuscripts, contains the best library in the world of Old Yiddish books from the 1530s (the beginning of Yiddish printing) on­wards; in a number of cases, it includes the only surviving copy.

When the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies was founded in 1972, the founders hoped that the Centre would facili­tate and co-ordinate the essential research on the collection, ‘which also contains a vast amount of rabbinic writing, particularly responsa, some of it by Oppenhei­mer himself and much of it still unpublished.

The situation described in the “Annals of the Bodleian Library” for 1829 still applies — that the library is “never without several foreign visitors engaged in its examination.”

Subsequently, the Bodleian has been continuously active in acquiring Hebrew material. It had the good fortune to have on its staff two of the greatest Hebraists of all time — Dr Moritz Steinschneider (1816­1907) and Dr Adolf Neubauer (1831-1907). Their great catalogues, of respectively Hebrew printed books and manuscripts in the Bodleian, will remain standard works for the study of Hebraica.

Further significant collections of Hebrew manuscripts were added in 1848, 1890 and 1981, while many incunabula — books printed in the fifteenth century — were acquired in Victorian times.

Even today, the library selects and acquires hundreds of the latest Hebrew books from Israel every year, so that there is an unbroken tradition of collecting Hebrew books from Bodley to the present.

Ibn Zabarah’s blessing

The Jerusalem Post Magazine – Friday, March 1, 1985

Emmanuel Pratt

MOSES IBN ZABARAH dipped his stylus in the rich brown ink and was about to apply it to a folio of thin, crisp parchment almost completely filled with clear, square Hispano-Jewish script. But he did not touch it. He preferred to linger and muse.

This would be the concluding paragraph of his colophon to the Book of Books he had copied from beginning to end during the last 10 months. He looked with satisfaction at the pile of similar folios stacked on the desk. A total of 460 sheets, one more beautiful than the other. And now he was about to complete the last one, the 461st.

He let his mind wander further into the past. Yes, he had come a long way since those days when he started out as an obscure travelling scribe, going from one Jewish community to another throughout Spain in search of a patron who would commission him to copy some manuscript or other.

He also had a great dream: to create his own manuscript — a true, vocalized copy of the traditionally accurate Bible that would be of incomparable beauty in script and illumination. Even more beautiful than the famous manuscript written in Cerbera in the year 1300 CE.

And now the dream was fulfilled: he, Moses Ibn Zabarah, and the artist Joseph Ibn Hayyim, had written and illuminated a book which could compete with the manuscript of Samuel ben Abraham Ibn Nathan and Joseph the Frenchman of Cerbera. Compete, and perhaps surpass.

He knew, however, that the dream could not have been fulfilled but for his young, rich and ambitious patron, Yitzhak Ibn Don Solomon di Braga di la Coruna. Yitzhak had seen the Cervera Bible. His late father’s library contained many precious manuscripts, but he had never seen one equal to this in splendour. A passionate lover of books, he ached to acquire it. But the owner would not part with it at any price. And so he made a decision: he would create his own manuscript, and it would be even more beautiful, more richly decorated.

Thus it was that Moses Ibn Zabarah now sat, stylus poised, ready to pen the dedication of his completed work to his patron:

“The admirable youth, Yitzhak son of the late honourable and beloved Don Solomon di Braga di la Coruna. The blessed Lord grant that he study it, he and his children and his children’s children throughout the generations… and God enable him to produce many books, books without end.”

Obviously Moses Ibn Zabarah looked forward to obtaining more commissions from his patron, especially as it seems that he had previous connections with the Braga family, and it may well he that it was he who influenced Yitzhak’s decision. Joseph Ibn Hayyim was engaged to illustrate’ and illuminate the manuscript, and the work began.

Judging by the magnitude of the project, it is safe to suppose that Jospeh Ibn Hayyim was a well-known artist, and that he was well acquainted with the Cervera Bible, whose influence can be seen in many of his illustrations. What is certain is that he was a great artist in his own right, inspired by his own imagination both in style and motifs.

The two men worked in close cooperation, the scribe planning the layout and allotting the spaces for illumination, as was customary in the production of medieval manuscripts. Now the work was complete.

The scribe dipped his stylus in the ink once more and wrote his closing words: “Blessed be he who preserves this book in his treasury. It should be kept for the children of Israel for generations… Amen.”

The date of the conclusion of the work was subtly coded by accentuating certain letters in the text of the last paragraph of the colophon. They added up to read: the third day of the month of Av in the year 5236 from the Creation. In terms of the Gregorian calendar, this meant July 24, 1476.

The sky was dark. Through the open windows the scribe heard monotonous chanting approaching. A procession of white-robed Dominican friars, torches in hand, passed along the narrow street below. The chanting died away, and soon a glow appeared in the sky. In the central square of Coruna a great bonfire had been lit. In it books were being burned. The Spanish Inquisition was on the march.

THE FATE OF Yitzhak Ibn Don Solomon’s library, as of the young man himself, is unknown. But the beautiful manuscript escaped the. flames, to lie hidden, no one knows where, for nearly three centuries.

On April 5, 1771, a certain Patrick Chalmers walked into the Radcliffe Trustees Collection in Oxford with the manuscript in his hand. He was offering it for sale, and on the advice of the librarian, Dr. Benjamin Kennicott, the Radcliffe decided to purchase it. Patrick Chalmers, Esquire, returned to obscurity richer by 52 pounds, 10 shillings.

Kennicott well knew what he was buying. A canon of Christ Church Cathedral and a learned Hebraist, he had studied hundreds of Hebrew biblical manuscripts from all over Europe, comparing their textual variations. His young wife, Hannah More, studied Hebrew to assist him in his ambitious research to ascertain “the accurate Hebrew text of the Bible.”

The Ibn Zabarah manuscript was never part of Kennicott’s personal collection. However, when it was transferred to Oxford University’s great Bodleian Library in 1872, it was registered as “Kennicott One.”

ANOTHER 108 years passed in twilight, with only the privileged experts having access to the exquisite manuscript. Until early in 1980, a young London printing engineer, Michael Falter, spent a leisurely Sunday afternoon visiting a permanent display of ancient Hebrew manuscripts in the British Library.

Michael Falter has a long family printing tradition “It goes back to the time when my great-grandfather was a travelling salesman in Czechoslovakia going on his bicycle from one town to another, selling type to printers,” he told me. His grandfather had a printer’s shop in Prague, and his father, a printing engineer, moved first to Vienna, and then, as a refugee, to London, where he started a printing machinery business.

Michael has a fascination for antique printing presses. He acquired two more than a hundred years old, planning to use them to reproduce printed works in the same way as they were originally produced. Some years ago he went to see Dr. David Patterson, chief librarian of the Bodleian’s Oriental collection, but the plan did not materialize. Now, in the British Library, the idea returned. and he paid another visit to Dr. Patterson, who invited him and his fiancée, Linda, to look at the “Kennicott.”

They were stunned by its splendour. And yet there was something else – a challenge and a cry from the distant past: “Blessed be he who preserves this hook in his treasury. It should he kept for the children of Israel for generations… Amen.”

That was an injunction that had never been fulfilled. He, Michael Falter, would fulfil it. He would make it possible for Jews all over the world to admire and study it. He would produce an exact facsimile of the Kennicott Bible.

“It is difficult to describe the extraordinary feeling we had at that moment,” says Michael. “We decided there and then that this was the manuscript we wanted to make a facsimile of. No other. This would be our first. Kennicott One would be Falters One.”

And Falters One would be produced in 550 copies.

THE FIRST thing was to secure a contract from Oxford University. It was a two-year battle. “We had no previous works to show them,” says Linda, “and we didn’t even know then that the library itself was bidding for the same project.”

Why was the Bodleian interested in making a facsimile of one of its most treasured gems? Would it not lower the value of the original?

“The original has no price, so it cannot be diminished,” she replies. “But every time somebody uses the manuscript it deteriorates in some way: there is wear on the binding, there is wear on the pages. And if no facsimile is made, it will eventually disappear. It will fall apart and they will have to lock it away and nobody will see it. And without blowing our own trumpet, we are actually performing a very valuable function for the library by producing this facsimile for them.”

When the Bodleian finally had to admit that they were abandoning the project because it was impossible to produce an exact replica of the original, Michael and Linda were given the contract.

NOW THEY were on their own to cope with problems that seemed insurmountable. The first was the paper:

“As far as we have seen,” says Linda, “facsimiles normally don’t give the feel of the original manuscript because of the quality of the paper. We wanted to produce a work that would have not only the look but the feel of the original, and so we had special paper milled for us. It had to have the translucency of parchment, so that the text and the illumination on the other side of the leaf would show through just slightly. It must not be smooth, and it must not be rough. Our facsimile was to be printed on a miracle. And it was.”

Most of their battles the couple had to fight on the Continent. “We went all over Europe looking for printers and paper,” says Michael. “For about a fortnight non-stop we were seeing two printers a day.”

No sooner was one problem solved than another emerged. The major one was the box binding. The original Kennicott One manuscript, in spite of its five centuries of wandering, is still in very good condition. This it owes to the magnificent box-binding in which it is enclosed: the soft goatskin is stretched over wooden boards which protect it from all sides.

“We have excellent hinders in England,” says Linda, “and assumed that we could get very good craft binding at home. It took us six months to discover that the best binder in England could not produce work anywhere near good enough. We went as far as Milan to find one. It was our own printer, in fact, who introduced us to him.”

The Italian printer proved to be just as much of an enthusiast for the project as he is a perfectionist.

“We could not have found a better man,” says Michael. “The paper we were so proud of was his greatest problem, but he overcomes it heroically. Take the illumination, for example. There are 238 pages, illuminated in 11 colours. Most of them have a lot of gold. In 550 copies you have a total of 12,090 pages.

“After having tried all sorts of printing short-cuts we came to the conclusion that the only way to apply gold so that it would feel like the original was the way it was applied to the original – by hand. And that’s what we are doing.”

THE FALTERS were not satisfied with producing just the facsimile of Kennicott One. Attached to it, in a separate twin volume, will be a fully-illustrated scholarly introduction by Prof. Bezalel Narkiss and Dr. A. Cohen-Mushlin of the Hebrew University.

To quote from this introduction, which deals with the historical and the craftsmanship significance of the original manuscript:

“It is a labour of love in which three people were involved: the scribe, the artist, and the patron, who all contributed their share, whether in inspiration or skill… All three are mentioned in the manuscript, and it is our first task to disentangle the motivation, inspiration, and roles of these three men in the making of the Kennicott Bible.”

A journalist may add another two people whose motivation and inspiration in creating the facsimile would take as much effort to disentangle.

The couple are very modest in speaking of their creation, but there is a justifiable note of pride in their voices when they talk of their determination to achieve perfection down to the last detail:

“The two volumes will be sumptuously enclosed in a presentation portfolio box which will itself be protected by a specially designed shipping container. And each copy will be delivered personally by a messenger.”

When the printing of the 550 copies is completed, the plates will be destroyed in the presence of Bodleian librarians.

What was their investment in the project?

Michael and Linda look at each other and chuckle. Each adds an ingredient of their investment: Blood. Sweat. Years of unsalaried work for two people – and now a baby. Using up all our savings and borrowing more money. We have nothing left in the bank except one very big overdraft…

They chuckle again, obviously enjoying their little Odyssey.

At the beginning of 1984, when sample pages and two dummy copies were ready, Michael and Linda “split forces.” Michael went to the U.S. while Linda came to Israel on a sales trip. The first signs of success appeared immediately. Feedback came from all over the world: New York, London, the Israel National Library, Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv University, Toronto, Sydney. and even the Imperial Palace, Tokyo.

“We are very happy the way things are going,” says Michael.

There are even more significant signs of a major breakthrough: Oxford and other major libraries all over the world are offering their most precious manuscripts for facsimile.

“We are considering one ancient Hebrew manuscript. You’ll have to excuse me if I do not disclose which one.” smiles Michael.

The presses in Milan keep rolling. The first hooks are just being completed. One copy will be in Jerusalem in time for the Jerusalem Book Fair. Behind all the excitement one discerns the fulfilment through the blessing of Moses Ibn Zabarah: “And God enable him to produce many books, books without end.”

Treasured Tomes

Oxford Today – Hilary Issue 1996 – Volume 8 No 2

SIR THOMAS BODLEY’S OWN INTEREST IN HEBRAICA BEGAN THE LIBRARY’S ACQUISITION OF ITS WORLD-FAMOUS COLLECTION OF HEBREW BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS

In a development of major international importance for Hebrew studies, manuscript studies, and codicology, the Bodleian Library has published a new catalogue of its Hebrew manuscripts. The Bodleian possesses what is probably still the most important collection of such manuscripts in the world. Unusually, the interest in Hebrew books stems directly from the founder of the library, Sir Thomas Bodley.

At first sight, it may seem odd that such a substantial collection of Jewish books should have been started in 1600, when officially there were no Jews in England. But Sir Thomas Bodley, who refounded the University library in 1598, was a type of man now almost, though not entirely, extinct. A fervent Protestant, he was an accomplished linguist who knew the classical and modern languages, ‘but Hebrew particularly, the parent of all the others’. It is astonishing how many Hebrew books are listed in the first catalogue of the library (1605); they are overwhelmingly from Venice, where Hebrew printing was in its prime. Bodley took a detailed personal interest in them, and at the end of the catalogue a page largely in Latin shows his own indignant corrections of some misprints in Hebrew.

In 1693 the library purchased the collections of Dr Robert Huntington and Professor Edward Pococke, the Regius Professor of Hebrew. Among the books bought from Dr Robert Huntington is Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah with the author’s signature, attesting that the text had been corrected against his original. This manuscript is supremely important both for historical reasons and for the accuracy of its text; it is treated with great reverence by scholarly readers. Huntington bought it while acting as chaplain to the English merchants in Aleppo.

A second Maimonides manuscript, this one in his own handwriting throughout, was among the 420 manuscripts bought from Professor Edward Pococke. It is the Commentary on the Mishnah, containing the tractates Nezikin and Kiddushin.

It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of these manuscripts for establishing the correct text, particularly since autograph works of any medieval Jewish scholar are exceedingly scarce. For both collections, 1,020 manuscripts in all, the University paid only £1,300.

One of the most sumptuous Hebrew illuminated manuscripts in existence, and a masterpiece of medieval Sephardic art, came to the library in bizarre circumstances in 1771. A young gentleman, Patrick Chalmers, entered the library carrying a Hebrew Bible written in 1476. Dr Benjamin Kennicott immediately recognized its importance and bought it for fifty guineas. The Bible had been copied by Moses Ibn Zabarah and lavishly illustrated by Joseph Ibn Hayyim on behalf of their patron, Isaac di Braga. It is an exquisite production, an exact facsimile of which was published in London in 1985. No one has any idea where the original lay between 1492. and 1771.

In 1829 the Bodleian Library bought the Oppenheimer Library, the most important and magnificent Hebraica collection ever accumulated, at a price later described as ‘the best bargain in the history of bookselling’. Rabbi David ben Abraham Oppenheimer (1664-1736) was the Chief Rabbi of Prague, and devoted more than half a century to building up his library. A bibliophile from his early youth, he went on long journeys to obtain rare manuscripts with a view to subsidizing their publication.

After his death, however, the collection was the subject of litigation, and was held in storage in 2.8 crates in a Hamburg warehouse. This was a matter of deep concern for the scholars of the Wissenschaft des Judentums, particularly

Dr Leopold Zunz, but no one could he found who was willing to donate the collection to a library. Although Moses Mendelssohn, the grandfather of the composer, had valued it at between 50,000 and 60,000 thalers, it was finally sold for the ridiculously low sum of 9,000 thalers (£2,080) to the Bodleian Library. The collection, of over 5,000 books and manuscripts, contains books from the 1530s (the beginning of Yiddish printing) onwards; in many cases it includes the only surviving copy.

Subsequently, the Bodleian has been continuously active in acquiring Hebrew material. It had the good fortune to have on its staff two of the greatest Hebraists of all time – Dr Moritz Steinschneider (1816-1907) and Dr Adolf Heubauer (1831-1907). Their great catalogues of, respectively, Hebrew printed books and manuscripts in the Bodleian remain standard works for the study of Hebraica.

Further significant collections of Hebrew manuscripts were added in 1848, 1890 and 1981, while many incunabula – books printed in the fifteenth century – were acquired in Victorian times.

It is Heubauer’s manuscript catalogue which the new supplement brings up to date. Although outstanding for its time, it was over a hundred years old, and so the Keeper of Oriental Books, Mr A D S Roberts, initiated the funding for the preparation of a new catalogue, or, more accurately, a volume of addenda and corrigenda which embodied the very latest advances in the study of manuscripts.

A team of scholars, each renowned in their field and led by Professor Malachi Beit-Arié of Jerusalem, set to work in a novel way. As the manuscripts had already been microfilmed, it was possible to do the work of recataloguing the texts entirely in Jerusalem. However, this cannot be a substitute for physical examination of the codices – ‘autopsy’, as it is rather strangely called. Accordingly Beit-Arié spent a year in Oxford examining all of the 2,602 codices described in the previous catalogue. The final text was edited by Mr R A May of the Bodleian.

Even today, the library selects and acquires hundreds of the latest Hebrew hooks from Israel every year, so that there is an unbroken tradition of collecting Hebrew books from Bodley’s time to the present. The situation described in the Annals of the Bodleian Library for 182.9 – that the collection is ‘never without several foreign visitors engaged in its examination’ – still applies.

Richard Judd (Keble, 1970)

Assistant Librarian, Bodleian Library

Address by His Royal Highness Crown Prince El Hassan bin Talal
of the
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

“TOWARDS A CONVERSATION BETWEEN MUSLIMS AND JEWS”

at the
Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies
22nd. May, 1997
Oxford, UK

The Kennicott Bible inscribed by our calligrapher as presented to HRH Prince Hassan.

Dr. Wasserstein,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my great pleasure to address such an illustrious gathering of scholars, in a no less distinguished university, so rightly, considered a focus for scholars from all over the world. I have tried to encourage and support dialogue between believers in the three great monotheistic faiths for many years. It is my belief that such a dialogue leaves the participants with more knowledge about the fundamental unities that exist between the faiths and their traditions.

Throughout history, religions have been exposed to the awareness of the existence of each other, through expansion, through accounts of travellers, but most importantly, through what can be termed as cultural contacts. Also, there have always been religious fanatics who felt that the “other” must be either suppressed or eliminated. The spectre of the rise of extremism in our own age cannot be defeated by ignoring the whole phenomenon. Rather, we must confront it collectively, by allowing our respective traditions to engage openly on the nature of our faiths’ universality, absoluteness, or even unique viability in a process of probing dialogue rather than polemics; and in the spirit of sharing and not disputation. For each to be given their due, humility is the most essential pre-requisite for any cultural contact.

Muslims are frequently depicted as warriors or war-like. There are many who claim that the imagery of the Quran is inspired by conflict. They forget that Islam was born in a world of constant turmoil, and did not invent strife. The Holy Quran is imbued with a tone of powerful serenity. If there are elements of polemic in Islamic literature whether concerning Judaism, or Christianity, it may be because Islam came after these religions, and was consequently, obliged to enunciate a perspective which made it possible to go beyond some of the formal aspects of the two preceding monotheisms.

Islam offered a form of historical self-consciousness, that in a Quranic context as a (Din) religion which is scripturally based, and is a continuation of the monotheistic tradition embodied in Judaism and Christianity, as opposed to the previous pre-Islamic (Jahili) system of beliefs. In the process of formulating and projecting its own identity, Islam simultaneously reconstructed its relationship with Jews and Christians, who as People of the Book, or Ahl al-Kitab, enjoy a privileged relationship as fellow monotheists.

Islam’s mode of narrative derives from the first human couple, Adam and Eve. It thus emphasises the common destiny of humankind. Adam is regarded as the first Muslim – that is, a person submitting to the will of God. This usage of the universal discourse, which begins with the first human couple, marks the beginning of the humanitarian saga towards the creation of an ideal society on earth. With that also, there is a recognition of universal moral norms that touch all human beings, even when they follow their own particular revealed paths.

The Quran (5:48) states “To every one of you [religious communities] we have appointed a law and a way [of conduct]. If God had willed, He would have made you all one nation; but [He did not do so] that He may try you in what has come to you; therefore, be you forward in good works. Unto God shall you return altogether; and He will tell you [the truth] about what you have been disputing”. The Muslim (Umma) community was thus defined by an increasingly pluralistic milieu, with a broad cultural discourse.

HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal receives the Kennicott Bible from Michael and Linda Falter.

These notions of faith and tradition, and their conceptual importance, are best illustrated in Yehuda Halevi’s work “the Kuzari”, in which reference is made to a conversation between the King of Khazars and a Rabbi. The King asks the Rabbi about his faith. The Rabbi answers by referring to the opening verse of the Decalogue, stating that he believes in the Lord God, who delivered his ancestors out of the house of bondage in ancient Egypt. The King is hardly impressed with a story about an ancient event in the life of some people’s ancestors. He expected a declaration of faith in an Almighty that has created everything. The Rabbi responds that this would be speculation, as no-one was present at the time of creation. However, the belief he is professing is born out of experience.

It is particularly this experience, of alienation and vulnerability, that has shaped the Hebrew concept of “Ger”, translated into Arabic “Jar”, and subsequently the “protected stranger”. The Book of Exodus (29, V3) says: “You shall not oppress the stranger. For you know the soul [feelings] of a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt”. The same message is repeated in the Book of Leviticus (19, V.34): “The stranger you shall not afflict… You shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt, I am the Lord your God”. The profound effect of the exodus experience, seems to have shaped the historical development of the terms “Ger Tosheb”, the resident alien, and “Ger Zedeq”, the righteous proselyte who adheres to the Seven Commandments of Noah, which came to ensure that humans would never descend to an antediluvian level of violence and immorality.

Judaism and Islam share a common idiom. This idiom which is divided into a primary moral discourse at the universal level, creates interactive strategies for co-operation between the particular community and the wider social universe, and a secondary language that is derived from ways of conduct that create an interactive system within the community.

It is most important to utilise these factors, inherent in the traditions of our faiths, in the era of increasing globalisation of our cultures, and in the midst of the ongoing revolution in communications. We must push for allowing truth to emerge in our common traditions of faith. At a time when migration and mobility have turned traditions into anguished questions of collective identity, we must uphold the truth in our common traditions of faith.

There are no straightforward solutions, nor easy answers, but we can all collectively activate the universal idiom that would permit co¬operation among us, without denying the fundamental source of our religious and cultural identification. Inter-faith dialogue has been ongoing between Jews and Christians for some time, while the Christians and Muslims have found a modus operandi for coexistence and understanding. However, paradoxically, while Muslims and Jews share the glorious heritage of Al Andalus and Sepharad, their relationship suffered great set¬backs in the 19th century, which developed into outright enmity in the 20th.

This shared heritage embraced the glorious poetry of Solomon ibn Gabirol, Moses ibn Ezra, and Judah ha-levi; the philosophical treatises of ibn Daud, and ibn Paqud; the scientific treatises of Abraham bar Hiyya, and Abraham ibn Ezra. These were all works of intellect, sensitive to every ripple of Arabic culture, and infused with its love of beauty and knowledge.

The work of Moses Maimonides (ibn Maimoun), the earliest systematic codification of all Jewish Law, remains an epitaph to a glorious cross-culture which requires rediscovery and recognition, in order to build on its past achievements.

We can do much to mitigate conflict by understanding each other’s faiths and traditions. We must rationalise our pain and suffering in the context of our historical encounter. In this way, we may one day be able together to renew the Islamic-Jewish heritage of old.

Thank you very much Ladies and Gentlemen.

Facsimile Editions – In the beginning…

Christian Bookseller – April 1986

Michael and Linda Falter have produced a facsimile of the Kennicott Bible, which is over five hundred years old

As I touched the page on which these words were printed, for a moment I felt that I was truly going back in time. In actual fact those words, in Hebrew had only been printed about a year before but in essence they went back to 1476. For that brief moment though I was with the first scribe, who wrote those words for the very first time.

It was in 1476, when a Bible (the Old Testament) was commissioned by Isaac, the son of Don Solomon de Braga of La Coruna in North Western Spain, for his young son.

It also carried a grammatical treatise, possibly included in the hope of catching the boy’s interest.

This Bible was eventually offered for sale to Benjamin Kennicott, an English Christian Hebraist who lived and worked in Oxford and who purchased it for the Radcliffe Libraries for fifty guineas in 1771. It was transferred to the Bodleian in 1872 where it has become one of their greatest treasures. In 200 years only 30 people have been allowed to study it. Now, with the facsimile edition no-one is able to do so. For Michael and Linda Falter have achieved a quality with their facsimile of the Kennicott Bible that to see and touch it is as if you were seeing and touching the original.

Kennicott himself married a woman who studied Hebrew and who helped him in his work. They worked together as a team and Michael and Linda like to remember that as they work together in their publishing.

The real beginnings of Facsimile Editions was probably in 1980 when Michael Falter went to the British Museum and saw there the collection of illuminated Hebrew manuscripts. His background is printing — third generation — and he is a graduate of the London College of Printing. After twelve years though he wanted to get away from it and he spent five years in the micro-computer business.

He did possess three antique presses dated from 1851 and always at the back of his mind was the idea of setting up a shop somewhere and reprinting the sort of thing that would have been printed at that time.

But looking at the fabulous manuscripts in the Museum, Michael thought that rather than reproduce the books and pamphlets from 1851 it would be lovely to reproduce something like these. Having had the thought, he had absolutely no idea whom he should approach, where to go or what to do.

Eventually through a friend, Dr David Patterson, at Oxford the idea was put before the Senior Assistant Librarian of the Bodleian whose immediate reaction was that there was only one book to attempt and that was the Kennicott Bible. The week that Michael met Linda was the week that they went to see the original Bible which was 510 years old. Michael describes sitting in front of it and realising that he was as close to the Bible as were the original scribe and illuminator and feeling very excited. He was seeing this very important book which so few people in recent years had been able to see and which had never been on display.

Starting together

The Bodleian gave their decision that the book should be reproduced. Also, Linda and Michael decided to marry! Linda had studied art, so together they made a team that began to confidently move forward to achieve their aim. At that time, they will say, they were not aware of the complete extent of what was involved. This very confidence actually led to the perfection of the facsimile because they never doubted that it could be done.

It took two years to find the paper, to discover what the formulation should be so that it would reproduce as closely as possible the parchment of the original, and to discover how to do the gold. Discover too, how to print on the paper, for unlike other facsimiles, which use a coated paper, they used a vegetable paper which feels like parchment but is so greasy that it is difficult to print on successfully. Also it moves slightly with the climatic conditions.

It was so unstable that the eventual printer had to change the air conditioning equipment in his factory in order to be able to print on this paper. During the two year period the printer had to be found. They were in touch with people all over the world, sending specifications, transparencies and photographs to all the major printing houses that they could find. It also meant meeting many people, either going to them or receiving them here.

Their desire that the Bible should be absolutely right has led to it being said that whilst, generally speaking, when you open a facsimile you feel that it is one because it is on coated paper and you therefore know that it is not a manuscript, the Kennicott is different, because you get much more of the feel of parchment.

All this was very difficult to achieve and Michael and Linda went to great lengths to get it right. A printer was eventually found in Italy; after failing for so long to find the sort of person that they were looking for. As Michael points out, it is not the machinery or the craftsman. It is all the best machinery and the best craftsmen; it is the will and the desire of the man in charge who must have a philosophy that only the best is good enough and it does not matter whether money is made or lost but that a particular result is achieved.

With a contract agreed, it was estimated that the work would take six weeks on a five colour machine. The working hours were from eight in the morning until eight in the evening, but in fact they usually finished at nine, ten or even later, on six days a week, and it took five and a half months! Michael and Linda were there every day checking each sheet for colour and accuracy. They had moved over to Milan for the period of printing for by then they had a son, Gideon.

They even rented a studio so that one or other of their mothers could go out to look after him; they each did stints of three weeks!

It is probably not possible for anyone notactually present to imagine the work involved. Not just to get it done but that it should be as perfect as possible. Because the workers were so dedicated to the task, it made things that much easier, for all the time the colours had to be changed and it could take anything up to twenty four hours to get the colours exactly right. Eventually it was finished to the satisfaction of all concerned. Then came the task of promotion and for this again, Michael and Linda have had to travel, going to various book fairs and enabling people to see the facsimile of this interesting and important work.

Limited edition

At the Jerusalem Book Fair it was a main event and people stood in throngs to see it from nine in the morning until eleven at night.

It has 922 pages of which 238 are illuminated with colours, burnished gold and silver leaf. The gold and silver leaf was applied by hand by seven craftsmen working simultaneously and this work alone took four months.

The box binding was difficult to copy as it is embossed in minute detail on all six sides, in an extremely rare style. Hand made dyes were made for this, to emboss the soft morocco goatskin. The edges of each leaf are gilt with 23 carat gold. Looking through the book one can see the marks and stains that the years have brought. Of interest is the way in which the scribe worked round the natural holes in the skin, the doodle of a tiny head onone of the pages, the illustration of Jonah being swallowed head first by a large fish.

Although much of the illumination gives illustrations of those things appertaining to the Jewish life and faith some do not. A delight is the one of an army of cats attacking a castle defended by mice, but one would need to spend hours studying each page to gain the full enjoyment of both the illuminator and the scribe’s work.

The edition is limited to 550 copies and many have already found their way into some prestigeous places. Perhaps what makes this facsimile so wonderful, is that apart from its value as an art creation it may be read and used within the family today and it has been bought for just that purpose for its language has not changed since it was first copied.

This book is a thing of beauty and the pride which the original craftsmen had in their work over 500 years ago has been matched by the publishers and craftsmen who have produced the facsimile.

This however, is not the end of the story for Michael and Linda Falter. In a way it is just the beginning for there are four new projects on the way. Next to come will be the Rothschild Miscellany, the original being in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. It is a book of Hebrew prayers.

Looking through the photographs one can see that this book is very beautifully illuminated. To bring it a little nearer to the view of the people of today, the search and dedication must continue so that the facsimile is as perfect as can possibly be, nothing else will satisfy the publishers.

Quest for perfection

Jewish Chronicle Magazine – September 28 1984

A love story with a difference, recounted by Patrice Chaplin

The Kennicott Bible, possibly the most beautiful Hebrew manuscript in existence, has been stored in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, since 1872, on show only to privileged scholars and historians. Now, thanks to the untiring efforts of a London couple, Michael and Linda Falter, this masterpiece will surface in the form of 500 expertly produced facsimile copies and so be available to the public for the first time.

The Bible was commissioned in the fifteenth century by Isaac, the son of Don Solomon di Braga, a prominent Jew of La Coruna in North-West Spain. The much acclaimed scribe Moses ibn Zabara was chosen to produce the exquisite script. He worked in an unusually harmonious fashion with his illustrator, Joseph ibn Hayyam, and the result of their collaboration is, to quote the Encyclopaedia Judaica, ‘The finest surviving example of Spanish Jewish Art . . . the culmination of the art of the Hebrew Bible.’

Joseph ibn Hayyam’s unique illuminations in rich, luxuriant colours made fabulous with superbly applied gold and silver have a Moorish, sometimes Gothic influence. Above all, they express the artist’s joyful originality, his love of fancy and splendour.

Produced at the very time Spain’s Jews were facing The Inquisition, the Bible is a last, undying reminder of a once glorious but lost heritage. From the beginning it was designed as a lavish work–238 of the 922 pages are illuminated, an unheard-of quantity.

It acquired its current name from Benjamin Kennicott, the English Christian Hebraist who presented it to the Radcliffe Library in 1771. It was transferred to the Bodleian Library in 1872 and today is considered one of Oxford’s greatest treasures.

As if by destiny, the Falters met each other and The Kennicott Bible more or less simultaneously. The following four years were spent devoted to the Bible’s reproduction—years not without defeat and times of hopelessness.

One Sunday afternoon in August 1980, Michael Falter had nothing to do. ‘I was a bachelor so I thought why not visit the British Museum. After all you never know who you might meet there.’ He didn’t quite meet Linda but he found a display of beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscripts and decided then that he would reproduce something exquisite.

An entrepreneurial printer’s engineer, Michael’s training was in business management though he had been born into the printing industry — both his father and grandfather had been printers. He’d spent two years at the London College of Printing, then set up his own business. ‘I’d buy up secondhand printing machines, completely take them apart, rebuild them and sell them with a guarantee as new. Over the years I’d acquired three antique printing presses —the original hand-operated ones from 1851 — and I wanted to put these to some use.’

Having come to that decision at the British Museum, Michael went to see David Patterson, the director of the Oxford Centre for Post Graduate Hebrew Studies, who said there was one manuscript above all worthy of reproduction and that was the Kennicott Bible.

‘He arranged for me to visit Ron May, the senior assistant librarian of Oriental Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, the following week. I went back to London feeling I was on the right track. I was. I met Linda.’

Linda was born in Nottingham and at sixteen travelled to Mexico, France and Switzerland. At 19 she went to work for the UN as a desk officer in Geneva. After that she worked in Teheran for the Representative of Iran and Afghanistan at the ILO. Then she taught English and French in an Iranian school. Following that she ran a restaurant in Los Angeles, ‘The House of Iran.’ Her next move was to be Tel Aviv where she wanted to live if her brother hadn’t needed help with his health club in Kensington.

An undeniably beautiful girl with radiant health and vivacity, Linda was surprisingly alone and lonely in London. ‘I was working in my brother’s health club from 9 am until 9 pm and I didn’t know a soul here. Eventually a friend of my brother’s introduced me to Michael. It was just at the time he was going to the Bodleian Library so I went with him and for the first time we saw the Kennicott Bible. I remember the day as so bright and lovely. You see, I’d been shut in the basement health club and hardly saw daylight.’

They fell in love, married and now have a young son, Gideon. That was the easy part. Bringing the Kennicott Bible out into the world from the library basement has been an exacting business, which obviously needed their combined skills.

How did they feel seeing the Kennicott Bible for the first time? Their procedure with the manuscript seemed very much like that of adopting a baby.

‘On the first visit we weren’t allowed to touch it,’ said Michael. ‘Ron May carried it up to his room and it really was awe-inspiring. It’s his love as well, of course.’

The Bodleian is not a public library and permission to enter is not easily obtained. The goodwill of Ron May and the support of David Patterson facilitated their next visits. But they had to convince the publications officer and the Board of Oxford University to give them a contract to produce the facsimile.

At what point did they decide to take it on?

Linda and Michael looked at each other and realised it had never been a decision. It was something they just had to do and they went right ahead and did it.

‘What struck me when I saw it the second time was this manuscript is five hundred years old and I’m sitting by it, as close as the original artist had been,’ said Michael. ‘It was an emotional experience to have so close to you this fabulous piece of history. So I wanted to bring to light something that would not normally be seen.’

‘No, we definitely didn’t decide to do it,’ emphasised Linda. ‘It decided for us. It was something beautiful that took you away from the nastiness of everyday, a lovely thing to be involved in. But the challenge of reproducing it without the skills that were available when it was originally executed was formidable.’

Michael pointed out that to find a manuscript of that age in such good condition was unusual. The secret was in the binding. It is one of only four known works — all Jewish —bound on all six sides so when closed it’s completely sealed and no air can get in.

A week after visiting the Bodleian the Falters set off across Europe to find a printer. In fact it took two and a half years to solve the printing problem. That was nothing compared with getting the gold right. Then there was the paper problem. And the box binding.

At the same time, the Oxford Committee would not grant them the contract. They felt it was too enormous an undertaking — the Falters had produced no other facsimile, apart from son Gideon! Their going ahead would exclude anyone else trying. Also The Oxford University Press itself was considering reproducing it.

‘They were extremely discouraging,’ said Michael. ‘In fact they discouraged us so much it took two years to get a contract out of them. What helped was that OUP decided the facsimile was beyond its capabilities. By then the committee were impressed with our knowledge and will to succeed.’

In Michael Falter’s opinion, facsimile producers almost always take the easy way out. They print on beautifully surfaced paper which will pick up every tiny detail and looks great but happens to be opaque.

‘This avoids the problem of the “showthrough.” Manuscripts are transparent, translucent not opaque. So we wanted a vellum indistinguishable from the original. But sometimes the air can make a book destroy itself and we’ve taken good care that this one won’t. After getting nowhere on the European trip we wrote to dozens of paper mills and eventually found a sort of greaseproof paper that was formerly used for wrapping bread. It turned out to be unstable. It had no grain to it. As soon as the atmosphere changed the paper changed. But the mill was interested so they eventually produced a paper to specification. It took a year, cost a fortune.

‘We’re printing this facsimile with nine colours. But you can’t just put a piece of paper in one end of the machine and it comes out with nine colours at the other. It goes in one colour at a time.

The sheet then has to dry, then it goes through again. And each time there’s an opportunity for an atmospheric change so the paper could distort and the next colour would be totally out of register. You could get it on the ninth colour and it would mean all that work has been wasted.

‘We’d seen hundreds of printers and it was beginning to look hopeless. Then one just turned up in London with his family from Italy. He said he had proofs of the paper, the transparency, the proofs of the binding even. At first I thought it was a friend having a joke. But Luigi was real. He came from Milan from a family of printers and the quality of his work was astounding. The colour was fantastic. The gold wasn’t great but it had promise. We took him and his family to the Bodleian and opened the manuscript and his face dropped. He said, “It’s impossible. There’s so much gold. We don’t have any machinery to reproduce that sort of thing.” So we drove back to London and not a word was spoken. He was very upset.’

And then the box binding, put out to top binderies in England, just could not be matched.

‘We got to a point,’ said Linda, ‘where we nearly gave up. On each one of the elements, the gold, the paper, the printing, the binding, we were near defeat.’

They financed the venture themselves and for two years on speculation because they still hadn’t been granted a contract from Oxford. They had to finance the tests for the English binderies. This took months and the costs were exorbitant. The results were disappointing.

‘Part of the problem was that nobody knew how they constructed the box in the first place.’

Once again the well-starred Italian printer found the solution. He simply went to a nearby binder in Milan who produced a marvellous binding just from a photograph.

‘No problems, no hassles,’ said Michael. ‘I wanted to do the binding here in England. If you can’t get a good one here, I thought, where on earth are you going to get it? We’ve got a fantastic tradition, after all. The Italian produced a Moroccan goatskin over wooden boards. There are geometric designs on the six sides, embossed with handcut brass dies. The original binding is damaged and even has a few holes. Well, we won’t produce those, they’re so ugly. We’re not going to take a pickaxe to the binding to make it look old. It will look like it did when produced originally. But the inside will look as it does today. The pages will have all the stains that life has given them. But of course the work is in particularly immaculate condition.’

The problem of the gold was resolved quite by coincidence. One of Michael’s contacts, a woman ‘well-known in the manuscript field’ in Milan, discussed the selling programme for the Bible. Depressed, Michael admitted his failure with the gold. By chance her husband had made special gold foil that was used in the printing of manuscripts.

‘It hadn’t been used much lately because no-one’s producing manuscripts any more. Well, it was terrific but had to be put on by hand. So now we have to hand gild each illustration — in other words, ten thousand pages by hand.’

The photography of the Kennicott Bible is now under way. The Bodleian stipulated that only their photographer be used and the manuscript is not allowed to leave the building.

‘The best way to photograph it is to disbind it so we can have the sheets flat but they won’t allow disbinding even though it had been disbound a hundred years ago,’ said Michael. ‘So we had to find a way to photograph inside the box. Luckily the Bodleian photographer, Charles Braybrooke, is very good. To avoid damaging the original he has to photograph through glass, but ordinary glass would cause discolouring. So we had optically white glass manufactured to capture the true colours. It was phenomenally expensive.’

Did the Falters expect to make a profit? Five hundred Bibles at 4,700 dollars each? Early subscribers get them for less. They said they’d be happy to break even.

‘We want to go on doing this,’ explained Linda. ‘Not just Hebrew manuscripts either. It’s part of our life now.’

Professor Bezalel Narkiss, an authority on Hebrew illuminated manuscripts, has written a commentary that will accompany the facsimile Bible in a separate volume.

‘It’s such a high-quality manuscript that we had to get the best person to write it,’ said Linda. The commentary tells the story of the Kennicott Bible, how it was created, its history, the importance of the illuminations. In the Falters’ view, it’s a wonderful piece of educational material in its own right.

Production of the Bibles will begin in December and the last one will be finished in May. The Falters will stay in Milan to supervise the printing. Every sheet will be brought to Oxford to be compared against the original.

The Bodleian and the Oxford Committee are delighted the Falters have been successful. And Dr Martin Brett, a medieval historian at Cambridge University, enthusiastically endorses the idea of the facsimile. ‘It will protect the actual manuscript. Some of these priceless works simply fall apart in your hands. You feel their bindings crack and it’s a very uneasy feeling. Now scholars won’t have to keep referring to the actual manuscript but to the facsimile instead. Four thousand dollars or so is not expensive at today’s publishing costs, especially as so much care has gone into this reproduction. The general public should be able to view a masterpiece but the trouble is people are destroying, while adoring. Expertly produced facsimiles solve that problem.’

Looking back, how did the Falters feel about the last four years?

Michael said, ‘I’m sure Linda and I were destined to be together. And I had to do the Bible. I spent twelve years in the printing industry and another five trying to get out of it. But if you’ve got printing ink in your blood it stays there.’

Linda said, ‘I think we were meant to be together and to do something together. I think my life up to meeting Michael was a preparation for that. A beautiful Hebrew Bible is a very strong thing to do. After all it will go on long after we’ve kicked the bucket.’

As for Gideon, at three months he’d already been to all the printing works in Italy. ‘He wouldn’t sleep during the night but he slept through all the din of the printing machines,’ said Linda. ‘The harsh smell of the chemicals didn’t worry him either.’ He can truly be said to be born into the printing trade, fourth generation.

The Kennicott Bible

Journal of Jewish Art – Vol 12-13 – 1986-87

ZWEI TIERSZENEN AM ENDE DER ERSTEN KENNICOTT-BIBEL
LA CORUÑA, 1476, IN OXFORD

Ursula Schubert

Die ersten 15 und die letzten 12 Seiten der ersten Kennicott-Bibel in Oxford(1) enthalten den Sefer Michlol von David Kimchi. Die äußere Form, die diesen Text auszeichnet, unterscheidet sich aufs deutlichste von derjenigen des Bibeltextes. Denn während dieser—in zwei Kolumnen geschrieben–die einzelnen manchmal gerahmten, zumeist aber ungerahmten Seiten des Codex von oben bis unten bedeckt, sind alle Textseiten der grammatikalischen Abhandlung des David Kimchi von Doppelarkaden gerahmt, die ihrerseits wieder in die Rahmen der einzelnen Seiten gesetzt sind. Ähnlich verschiedenartig wie die “mise-en-page” der beiden Texte ist auch die Art der Anordnung der mannigfaltigen Dekormotive. Beim Bibeltext sind die geometrischen, vegetabilen und zoomorphen Schmuckelemente, die zahlreichen Drölerien und die beiden biblischen Szenen(2)am Rand oder zwischen den Kolumnen des Textes eingefügt. Hingegen ist bei den 27 Seiten des Sefer Michlol der gesamte, sehr vielseitig gestaltete Dekor in den reichlich vorhandenen Freiraum zwischen Arkade und Rahmen gesetzt. Im oberen, breiteren Feld zwischen Rahmenleiste und Arkadenbogen bei einer Reihe von Blättern des Kimchi-Textes vor dem Anfang der Bibel befinden sich Tierdarstellungen, Tierszenen, tierähnliche Drölerien und Drachenbilder.

Auf die verschiedenen formalen Ähnlichkeiten und ikonographischen Parallellen zwischen der Ersten Kennicott-Bibel und der vom Illuminator in vielfacher Hinsicht als Vorlage herangezogenen Cervera-Bibel(3) wurde schon mehrmals hingewiesen.(4) Aber keine Vorlage bot die um ca. 175 Jahre ältere Cervera-Bibel für die einzigen beiden Tierszenen, die sich im zweiten Teil des Sefer Michlol über den Arkadenbögen der letzten Doppelseite des Textes und somit am Ende des

Fol 442 v (Abb. 1): Angeführt von einem gekrönten Hasen, der sich auf sein Szepter stützt, marschiert eine Truppe von bewaffneten Hasen auf eine von Zinnen und Türmen bewehrte Burg zu. Von der Spitze des Bergfrieds blickt ihnen ein Wolf oder Hund entgegen. Hinter dem Hasenheer sitzt ein zweiter, ebenfalls gekrönter Hase auf einem rosa Hocker, und hält mit beiden Vorderpfoten sei es ein Szepter, einen Schlüssel oder Blumen.

Der Angriff von Hasen auf eine Burg, die von stärkeren Lebewesen, seien es Wölfe, Hunde oder auch Menschen, verteidigt wird, gehört in den Bereich der “Verkehrten Welt”, ein Thema, das schon im Alten Ägypten und im Vorderen Orient weit verbreitet war.(5) Entsprechende Darstellungen erfreuten sich großer Beliebtheit, da, wie H. Kenner hervorhob, der einfache Mensch sich eine Besserung der augenblicklichen Notlage einfach als ihre Umkehrung vorstellte. “Mit diesem in der Phantasie befriedigten Triumph des gerechten Ausgleichs verband sich fließend der Traum von einer bevorstehenden glücklichen Zeit, einer aurea aetas, wo alle gleichgestellt, friedlich und satt nebeneinander leben würden.”(6) Der häufigste Repräsentant der in der Verkehrten Welt zu Macht und Ansehen gekommenen Tiere im indoeuropäischen Raum war der Hase,(7) der die starken Tiere durch List überwand und auf diese Weise selbst über den Menschen triumphierte.

Das Thema der Verkehrten Welt hatte auch im Mittelalter seine Anziehungskraft noch nicht verloren und kam mit Vorliebe an den Rändern liturgischer Handschriften des 13. und 14. Jahrhunderts zur Darstellung.(8) Diese Randillustrationen wurden von den Predigten der Mönche der neugegründeten Bettelorden angeregt, die die antiken Fabeln und ihre moralisierende Ausdeutung gern zur Belebung und Ausschmückung ihrer Mahnreden heranzogen.(9) Wenn auch heute meist keinerlei erkennbarer Zusammenhang zwischen diesen Bildern und dem Text, den sie begleiten, besteht, so konnte doch offenbar von dem Illuminator die Kenntnis des Predigtmotivs, auf das sich das jeweilige Bild bezog, vorausgesetzt werden.(10) So ist beispielsweise ein französisches bischöfliches Zeremonienbuch (Pontificale) aus dem Anfang des 14. Jahrhunderts mit einer Randillustration geschmückt, die den Angriff mehrerer Hasen auf eine von drei Rittern verteidigte Burg zeigt.(11)

Im späten 15. Jahrhundert schließlich hatte das Thema der Verkehrten Welt seine Bedeutung als Waffe in sozialen und religiösen Auseinandersetzungen endgültig verloren und diente in Poesie und Bildkunst nur mehr zur Unterhaltung und Belustigung(12) Ein schönes Beispiel für die Verbreitung und Beliebtheit des Motivs der Verkehrten Welt, in der die Hasen herrschen und über Jäger und Hunde Gewalt haben, boten die Malereien an der Fassade des sogennanten “Hasen-Hauses” in Wien. Es wurde 1509 auf Befehl des Kaisers Maximilian für den “hasplmeister” von Wien, d.h. den Hüter des kaiserlichen Hasengeheges, in der Kärntnerstraße 14 errichtet, 1525 nach einem Brand umgestaltet und schließlich 1749 abgerissen. In 32 Feldern war auf der Fassade der Krieg der Hasen unter der Führung ihres Königs gegen die Jäger und Hunde dargestellt. Da die letzteren unterlagen, wurden sie von den Hasen zusammengetrieben, vor Gericht gestellt, verurteilt, gefoltert, hingerichtet und schließlich gebraten und gegessen. Die Bilder sind durch Holzschnitte aus der 2. Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts erhalten geblieben.(13)

Das Bild vom Ansturm des Hasenheeres gegen die Wolfs- oder Hundeburg in der Ersten KennicottBibel könnte an der Wende zwischen Ernst und Scherz stehen, und in Übereinstimmung mit dem archaischen Stil der Handschrift(14)—im Kielwasser der vielen vorangegangenen Darstellungen des Themas—auf die utopische Hoffnung einer besseren Welt hinweisen wollen.

Die Darstellung auf fol 443 r (Abb. 2) bildet in Themenwahl, Komposition und Aufbau das absolute Pendant zu fol 442 v. Aber während dort das Heer der ängstlichen Hasen gegen die bedrohliche Hunde- oder Wolfsburg anrückt, ist es hier eine Truppe von grimmigen Katzen, die gegen eine von vielen Mäusen verteidigte Burg zu Felde ziehen. An der Spitze schreitet mit gezücktem Schwert der König. den Schluß bildet eine zweite Katze, ebenfalls ein großes Schwert schwingend und gut gedeckt durch einen Schild.

Das Thema des Katzen-Mäuse-Krieges kam schon im Alten Ägypten zur Darstellung, allerdings in umgekehrter Rollenverteilung. Auf dem Turiner Papyrus(15) aus dem 14. Jahrhundert v. Chr. ist der Ansturm von kriegerischen Mäusen auf eine Katzenburg dargestellt. In seinem von Hunden gezogenen Streitwagen braust der Mäusepharao heran, auf der Stadtmauer stehen einige unbewaffnete Katzen, offensichtlich zur Übergabe bereit. Die Darstellung scheint somit ein ägyptisches Kampfbild nachzuahmen. Aber S. Morenz weist darauf hin, daß der Sinn dieses Bildes unklar bleibt; wenn die siegreichen Mäuse die Ägypter bedeuten, wer sind die unterlegenen Katzen? Da Morenz kein Text, keine Tierfabel oder Tiersage bekannt ist, mit der die Darstellung in Verbindung gebracht werden könnte, bleibt nur übrig, das Bild in den Bereich der Verkehrten Welt zu verweisen,(16) wo der Schwächere dank verschiedener Tugenden und Talente über den Stärkeren triumphiert.

E. Brunner-Traut kam bei ihrer Untersuchung verschiedener bildlicher und literarischer Beispiele in Ägypten und im Orient zu dem Schluß, daß der Katzen-Mäuse-Krieg nach ersten Erfolgen der angriffslustigen Mäuse mit einem eindeutigen Sieg der Katzen endet.(17) Das von ihr angeführte persische Epos des Obeid Zakani(18)aus dem 14. Jahrundert n. Chr. entspricht dieser Einteilung, wenn auch wieder die Frage offen bleibt, wer unter den übermütigen Mäusen und wer unter den siegreichen Katzen zu verstehen ist. Aber ein späterer Zusatz gibt dem Leser den guten Rat: “Mein Lieber, beherzige den Rat aus dieser Geschichte, damit du froh in den Zeiten lebst! Versteh, mein Sohn, was mit den Mäusen und Katzen gemeint war,wenn du ihr Epos liest.(19) Ob unter den Katzen die mongolischen Oberherren, ob unter den Mäusen die lokalen Feudalherren gemeint waren, wird nicht gesagt. Aber die Moral, die das Epos des großen persischen Satirikers lehrt, läßt sich folgendermaßen zusammenfassen: Gewalt geht vor Recht, und der seine Kräfte überschätzende Schwächling ist selber an seinem Schicksal schuld. Es waren also das Tierepos ebenso wie die Fabel ein beliebtes und hilfreiches Kampfmittel bei politischen oder sozialen Auseinandersetzungen mit mächtigeren Feinden.

Wenn Brunner-Traut der Meinung war, daß üblicherweise der Katzen-Mäuse-Krieg mit einem Sieg der Katzen endete, so gibt es doch immer wieder Ausnahmen, ohne daß es sich dabei um Typen der Verkehrten Welt handelt. Das Schauspiel des Byzantiners Theodoros Prodromos,(20) das—wie H. Hunger ausfürt—eine antike Tragödie parodiert, endet mit dem Sieg der Mäuse. H. Hunger will darin eine Anspielung auf die damaligen politischen Verhältnisse in Byzanz sehen, wo sich die Feinde des Kaisers nicht ans Tageslicht wagten sondern sich vor ihren mächtigen politischen Gegnern in den Winkeln verkrochen.(21)

Mit einem ähnlichen Ausgang wie das Drama des Theodoros Prodromos ist der Katzen-MäuseKrieg auch als Randillustration in einem englischen Stundenbuch belegt.(22) Wie oben im Zusammenhang mit Randillustrationen aus dem Themenkreis der Verkehrten Welt dargelegt wurde, waren es die Exempla der Mönchsprediger im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert, die den Anstoß zu diesen Randillustrationen gaben.(23) Die Darstellungen im englischen Stundenbuch befinden sich jeweils am unteren Seitenrand, wobei die Bilder der einzelnen Doppelseiten immer zusammengehören.

Fol 71v-72r zeigt den Angriff von zwei Mäusen auf die Katzenburg. Vom obersten Stockwerk wirft die Katze große Steine auf die Mäuse hinunter. Auf dem Blatt gegenüber sieht man ein Katapult, mit dessen Hilfe eine Maus einen großen Stein auf die Katzenburg schleudern will.

Fol 72v-73r: Die Katze is zum Angriff übergegangen. Sie steht auf einem Hügel und schießt mit einer Armbrust Pfeile auf die von drei Mäusen verteidigte Mäuseburg. Vor der Burg liegt eine zweite Katze auf dem Rücken und ist von einem Stein getroffen.

Fol 73v-74r: Um den Kampf zu entscheiden, kommt es zwischen der Katze und der Maus zum Duell: Die Katze schießt mit Pfeil und Bogen nach der Maus, die auf der gegenüberliegenden Seite ihren Schild hochhält und einen Speer schwingt.

Fol 74v-75r: Zeigt schließlich den Ausgang des ungleichen Kampfes; vom Speer durchbohrt bittet die Katze mit erhobenen Pfoten um Gnade, während die Maus auf der gegenüberliegenden Seite ihren Schild hochhält und einen zweiten Speer schwingt. Der lateinische Text, den diese Bilder begleiten, spricht von der elenden Lage des Menschen auf dieser Erde und preist die Herrlichkeit Gottes. Es läßt sich schwer sagen, wie das Predigtmotiv, das diese Bilder illustrieren, ausgesehen haben mag. Jedenfalls aber muß es vom Triumph des Schwachen über den Starken gehandelt und sich damit dem Themenkreis der Verkehrten Welt genähert haben.

Zu Ende des 15. Jahrhunderts hatte die Tiergeschichte, wie wir gesehen haben, ihre moralisierende und sozialkritische Funktion verloren und diente—ebenso wie die Darstellungen der Verkehrten Welt—nur mehr der Belustigung ihrer Leser.

In Anlehnung an eine offenbar beliebte und wohlbekannte Handschrift(24) brachte einer der grossen Drucker von Venedig zu Anfang des 16. Jahrhunderts unter dem Titel “La grande battaglia delli gatti e deli sorci” (Die große Schlacht der Katzen und Mäuse) ein Pamphlet heraus, das die Mächtigen von Venedig aufs Korn nimmt. Von dieser Schrift sind heute zumindest drei Exemplare erhalten(25) Derjenige Druck, der in Venedig in der Biblioteca Nationale Marciana, Misc. 1945/37(26) liegt, wird als “Neudruck” bezeichnet. Er ist etwas ungenauer als jener, der sich in Chantilly im Musée Condé befindet, und der im November 1521 herausgebracht wurde. Bei diesem Exemplar findet sich unter dem Titel auch die Angabe “Cosa nova bellissima da ridere e da piacere” (Ganz neue Sache zum Lachen und zur Unterhaltung).

Das kleine Tierepos ist eine Parodie auf den Dogen und den Rat der Zehn von Venedig, die unter dem Großkönig und seinen zehn Königen gemeint sein dürften. Charakter und Bewaffnung dieser Mächtigen werden auf das genaueste, aber in den ungünstigsten Farben geschildert. So wird beispielsweise einer der zehn Könige als Vater des Diebstahls, Verrats und Betrugs bezeichnet, von einem anderen heißt es, daß er einen Panzer aus Zwiebelschalen und ein Nachtgeschirr als Helm trug, daß sein Schild ein Stück Käse, seine Lanze ein Spinnrocken und sein Reittier ein Elefantenzahn war. Die Mäuse, von denen sich schwer sagen läßt, wer damit gemeint war, werden weder so eingehend noch so abfällig beschrieben. Das Epos schildert, daß nach einem zufälligen Zusammentreffen eines Katzenfürsten und seiner Schildknappen mit einer Einheit von hundertt Mäusen, bei dem der Katzenfürst fällt und von seinen Schildknappen nur ein einziger am Leben bleibt, der dem Großkönig über den Unglücksfall berichten konnte, die Katzen und Mäuse ihre Truppen zusammenziehen. Hierauf brechen der Sohn des Großkönigs und sein Heer zur Mäusestadt auf. Nach einer Reihe von Duellen zwischen den verschiedenen Königen der Katzen und der Mäuse, die jeweils für den einen oder anderen tödlich ausgehen, kommt es zur Schlacht. Die Mäuse werden besiegt, viele fallen, die restlichen fliehen und die Mäusestadt wird niedergebrannt. Dieses kleine Epos ist mit einem Holzschnitt ausgestattet, der sich auf der ersten der vier Textseiten, unmittelbar unter dem Titel befindet (Abb. 3). Er zeigt gleichsam den letzten Akt des Dramas, den Sturm der Katzen auf die Mäusefestung. Es ließe sich denken, daß die Handschrift, die für den Druck als Vorlage benutzt wurde, ebenso eine Reihe von Illustrationen enthielt, wie dies beim englischen Stundenbuch der Fall war. Somit finden wir in die-sein italienischen Frühdruck erstmals eine Darstellung des Katzen-Mäuse-Krieges, die von einem ausführlichen dazugehörigen Text begleitet ist.

Bei der Beliebtheit und weiten Verbreitung dieses Themas sowohl im Orient als auch im Mittelmeerraum kann es nicht Wunder nehmen, daß auch der Illuminator der Ersten Kennicott-Bibel darauf zurückgriff. Wenn er auch in der jüdischen Buchmalerei keine geeignete Darstellung gefunden haben dürfte,(27) so mag die christliche Umwelt ebenso wie für andere Illustrationen(28) auch hierfür eine Vorlage geboten haben. Freilich kann bezweifelt werden, ob der Illuminator, Joseph Ibn Chaijm, die Darstellung nur von der humoristischen Seite sah. Es könnte auch ihn die Möglichkeit gelockt haben, durch das Bild des Kampfes der Mäuse gegen die Katzen die Unterdrückung der Rechtlosen durch die Mächtigen, wie er es verstand, anzuprangern. Vielleicht sollen die beiden Illustrationen auf den letzten Seiten einer so prunkvollen Handschrift, das utopische Bild der Verkehrten Welt und das realistische Bild einer grausamen Wirklichkeit, ein Hinweis sein auf das bedrohte Leben der Juden in Spanien, 16 Jahre vor ihrer der endgültigen Vertreibung aus diesem Land.

(1) B. Narkiss in collaboration with A. Cohen-Mushlin and Anat Tche­rikover, Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts in the British Isles, vol. I: The Spanish and Portuguese Manuscripts (Jerusalem and London. 1982), 153-159, No. 48, Figs. 141-186; The Kennicott Bible Facsimile Edition, introduced by B. Narkiss and A. Cohen-Mushlin (London, 1985). Leider ist mir die Faksimile-Ausgabe nicht zugänglich.

(2) Fol. 185r, der greise König David am Anfang der Königsbücher, und fol. 305r, der ins Meer geworfene und vom Fisch verschlungene Jonas am Anfang des Buches Jona; beide Darstellungen entsprechen dem kanonischen Bibeltext.

(3) Lissabon, Bibl. Nacional, MS 72.

(4) B. Narkiss, Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts (Jeruslaem, 1969), pl. 17; J. Gutmann, Buchmalerei in Hebräischen Handschriften (Mün­chen, 1978), S. 59, Tafel 10; U. und K. Schubert, Jüdische Buchkunst, (Graz, 1983), S. 84f. Abb. 6 und 7; B. Narkiss, aa0. (Anm. 1), SS. 158f.

(5) H. Kenner, “Das Phänomen der Verkehrten Welt in der griechisch-römischen Antike,” Forschung und Kunst, Band 8 (Klagenfurt, 1970).

(6) H. Kenner, aa0., 59.

(7) Th. Wright, History of Caricature and Grotesque in Literature and Art (London, 1865), S. 88; L. Mäterlinck, Le genre satyrique dans la peinture flamande (Bruxelles, 1907) S. 50; H. Kenner, aa0., S. 97.

(8) L. Randall, Images in the Margins of Gothic Manuscripts (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1966), S. 18.

(9) D. Lämke, Mittelalterliche Tierfabeln und ihre Beziehungen zur bilden den Kunst, (Greifswald, 1937), SS. 9-15.

(10) L. Randall, “Exempla as a Source of Gothic Marginal Illumination, Art Bull. 39 (1957), 97-107, bes. 101f.

(11) Pontificale für Reynaud de Bar, Bischof von Metz (1302-16), Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 298, fol. 41r; Randall aa0. (Anm. 8), Fig. 354.

(12) J. Bolte, “Bilderbogen des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts,”Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde, hrsgg. von J. Bolte, 17. Jg. (Berlin, 1907), 425-441; C. Wendeler, “Bildergeschichten des 17. Jahrhunderts,” Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde, hrsgg. von J. Bolte, 15. Jg. (Berlin, 1905), 27-45; 150-165.

(13) J. Leisching, “Das Hasenhaus in Wien,” Zeitschrift für Bildende Kunst hrsgg. von C. v. Lützow, Neue Folge, 4. Jg., (Leipzig, 1893), 135-139.

(14) B. Narkiss, aa0. (Anm. 1), S. 159.

(15) S. Morenz, “Ägyptische Tierkriege und die Batrachomyomachia,” Neue Beiträge zur Klassichen Altertumswissenschaft, Festschrift B. Schweitzer, hrsgg. von R. Lullies (Stuttgart, 1954), SS. 87-94; E. Brunner-Traut, Altägyptische Tiergeschichte und Fabel, (Darmstadt, 1968), S. 2f.

(16) H. Kenner, aa0. (Anm. 5). S. 28f.

(17) E. Brunner-Traut, aa0. (Anm. 15), S. 29.

(18) Obeid Zakani. Katze und Maus, aus dem Persischen übertragen und mit einem Nachwort versehen von H.W. Duda (Salzburg. 1947).

(19) Obeid Zakani, aa0., S. 13f.

(20) H. Hunger, “Der byzantinische Katz-Mäuse-Krieg.” Theodoros Prodromos, Katomyomachia, Einleitung. Text und Obersetzung. Byzantina Vindobonensia, hrsg. vom Kunsthistorischen Institut und dem Institut für Byzantinistik der Universität Wien, Bd. 3 (Graz, 1968)

(21) H. Hunger, aa0., S. 56.

(22) London, Br. Libr. Harl. 6563, fol. 71v-75r. Bei L. Mäterlinck, Le genre satyrique (Anm. 7) sind fol. 71v-72r und fol. 72v-73r (Figs. 50 und 51) ohne Angabe der Foliozahl nachgezeichnet; fol. 71 v-72r bei L. Randall, aa0. (Anm. 8), Fig. 99.

(23) L. Randall, aa0. (Anm. 10), S. 98f.

(24) Vgl. A.M. }lind. An Introduction to a History of the Woodcut, 2 Vols. (New York, 1963), S. 108, wo die gesetzlichen Bestimmungen erwähnt sind, die das Kopieren von Handschriften durch Drucker verhindern sollten.

(25) V. Massena, Prince d ‘Essling, les Livres ä Figures Veniciens, II. Bd., 2. Halbbd. (Paris, 1909), SS. 421-423, nos. 2114-2116.

(26) Ein wirklicher Neudruck von 1914 in Venedig, Bibl. Nat. Marc., Misc. 4181. Vgl. A. Segarizzi, Bibliografia delle stampe populari italiane della R. Bibliotecca Nationale di San Marco a Venezia, vol. 1 (Bergamo, 1913), no. 164, Fig. 111.

(27) Vgl. 1-1. Schwarzbaum. “The Mishle Shu’alim (Fox Fables) of Rabbi Berechiah ha-Nakdan, A Study in Comparative Folklore and Fablelore” ( Kiron: Institute for Je wish and Arab Folklore Research, 1979), SS. 1-155.

(28) Vgl. B. Narkiss, aa0. (Anm. 1), S. 159.

The Kennicott Bible

Journal of Jewish Art – Vol 12-13 – 1986-87

A complete facsimile edition with an Introduction by Bezalel Narkiss and Aliza Cohen-Mushlin. Facsimile Editions, London, 1984.

Illuminated manuscripts are hidden treasures for most lovers of Jewish art. Unlike paintings or ritual objects which are more often exhibited prominently in museums and cultural centers, the odd illuminated manuscript which is at times exhibited, can only be opened in one place, showing a double page. To most art lovers it is not as easy to go into a library or museum and to study thoroughly each page of an illuminated manuscript, as it would be to look at an object or even to handle it. By not studying an illuminated manuscript one misses a great deal of an art which throws light and understanding on Jewish history and material culture. Fascimiles of complete illuminated manuscripts are therefore essential substitutes for the actual manuscript. A fascimile can be handled more easily than the fragile manuscript itself and by its mere duplication it can be made available in libraries as well as to private owners and can therefore be enjoyed by many art lovers.

The more accurate the facsimile, the better the actual manuscript can be simulated and the more enjoyable it is to the viewer. In recent years several fascimiles of Hebrew illuminated manuscripts have appeared on the market. Most of them are of illuminated haggadot. The Darmstadt Haggadah and the Bird’s Heads Haggadah were among the first Ashkenazi manuscripts to appear; the Sarajevo and the Golden Haggadot were only partial facsimiles of Sephardi manuscripts. These were followed by more recent publications of non-medieval Haggadot. Because of its large size, a complete illuminated Hebrew Bible has never been produced in facsimile. The recent publication of the Kennicott Bible in facsimile form is therefore an important and unique occurrence which should be celebrated. Among the giant Sephardi Bibles of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Kennicott Bible is undoubtedly the most sumptuous and extensively illustrated manuscript to have survived the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.

The manuscript was copied in 1476, less than twenty years before the expulsion, in the city of La Coruna in the province of Galicia in north-western Spain. The scribe, Moses Ibn Zabara, proclaims in his colophon that he copied, vocalized and massorated the twenty-four books of the Hebrew Bible for Isaac, son of Don Solomon di Braga. He also copied the grammatical treatise by R. David Kimhi which was bound in the beginning and at the end of the manuscript.

The illumination of the manuscript was executed by Joseph Ibn Hayyim, whose illuminated colophon completes the volume. The text of the Bible was copied in beautiful square Sephardi script, in two text columns, clearly legible even to a modern reader. Most of the pages are decorated and illustrated with a large variety of human, animal, vegetable and other decorative motifs, some of them text illustrations preceding books and portions of the Bible. A patriarchal David, for instance, appears at the beginning of the first book of Kings, where he is mentioned in the text as an aging king (fol. 185r; see front cover of this volume). David Kimhi’s grammatical treatise is sumptuously framed by colourful arcades with a variety of motifs, such as depictions of grotesque scenes, like an army of rabbits besieging the wolves’ castle (fol. 442v). Among the text illustrations are Jonah being swallowed by the large fish (fol. 305r), and two full pages illustrating the various implements of the Temple in Jerusalem (fols. 120v-121, Fig. 1).

There is no other Spanish Bible of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries which has such rich illuminations, both full carpet pages and text decoration.

The fascimile recently published by Facsimile Editions of London is a superb example of what such an edition should be. The publishers have managed to simulate the original manuscript to the extent that it can be and is exhibited in some museums as thought it were the original Kennicott Bible, paying particular attention to the texture of the paper which simulates the original vellum, and to accurate colour reproduction, including the burnished gold and silver. The peculiar box-like binding retains the original form in which the thirty-nine quires of the Bible were placed, as it is bound in the Bodleian Library today. The pleasure of handling, reading, browsing through and studying the facsimile can not be less than the pride and joy felt by Don Isaac di Braga when he first received the manuscript in 1476. The success of the publishers in producing such an accurate fascimile has hardly ever been matched, not only in facsimiles of Hebrew but also of Latin, Greek or other manuscripts.

The production of the introductory volume, which matches the brownish red Morocco binding and uses hand-made paper, is of a similar high quality. The text of the introduction written by Bezalel Narkiss and Aliza Cohen-Mushlin, both of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, elucidates the mysteries of the Kennicott Bible. The authors describe the manuscript and its production, throwing light on the historical background as well as the personal backgrounds of the patron, the scribe and the artist. Part of their writing is the result of previous studies duly acknowledged by the authors. The collation of all this material, as well as the authors’ new findings and interpretation, make this introduction an important contribution to the understanding of the Kennicott Bible and its origins.

The story of the collaboration between patron, scribe and artist is fascinating. The patron, Isaac di Braga, son of a rich merchant from Portugal who probably settled in La Coruna and coveted an illuminated manuscript — the Cervera Bible of 1300 — is one of the heroes of the story. Since he could not acquire the original, he ordered a similarly magnificent Bible from the most illustrious artisans of his period. The scribe, Moses Ibn Zabara, whose accuracy and legible script, famous from copying other manuscripts, made him known as “the Angel”, is the second protagonist of this story; and the third is the artist Joseph Ibn Hayyim, whose style, unique and unparalleled in any other manuscript, is shown by the authors to be eclectic. He used as models a variety of sources ranging from Hebrew and Latin manuscripts, mainly the Cervera Bible but also secular art of his period. One surprising model is constituted by playing cards, which were used profusely by the artist, both for animals and birds as well as for the aging King David. The authors also deal at length with the unique box binding of the Kennicott Bible and set out to prove that, although it is contemporary with the manuscript itself, the quires may have been differently arranged within the box and possibly not sewn. They also publish for the first time a leather case in which the entire Bible and its binding were placed, probably for carrying purposes at the time of the expulsion This was probably made in Spain around 1492, and ii bears the name of the original patron, Isaac.

Extensive and important as the introduction is, one regrets certain omissions. Among the many figural illustrations, the origins of which the authors have revealed there are some which they did not manage to decipher and therefore the entire repertoire of the eclectic artist is not known. His stylistic origins are also not revealed in their entirety. Besides the Portuguese and the Spanish stylistic elements, there are some which are not explainable, such as the human and animal motifs resembling stitched appliqué patches which are known from contemporary Spanish textile hangings, but which do not appeal in any similar illuminated manuscript. Could Joseph Ibn Hayyim have been a maker of appliqué hangings who fancied illuminating a single manuscript? It is not otherwise clear why such a skilled artist did not leave any other manuscript, especially since his flat “appliqué” illumination does not appear in any other contemporary school of illumination. Doubts exist in the authors’ description of the outer case of the Bible, which may indeed not be of Spanish origin, but from southern France or Italy, where the expelled Isaac di Braga may have found a temporary haven. The lack of an index to the introductory volume is a serious omission in such an important text. Lastly, the layout of the introductory volume is very strange, in particular the unaesthetic placing of the pictures, and the fact that the illustrations are not numbered consecutively making it necessary to turn from one page to another to follow them as one reads the text. The hand-made paper chosen for this volume is not suitable either for colour or for black and white printing. None of this, however detracts from the fluency of the text of the introduction and certainly not from the beauty and accuracy of the fascimile. It is a pleasure to have the possibility to read and enjoy a facsimile as rich as the Kennicott Bible.

Yael Zirlin

Min søn, tag dig i vare, thi der er ingen ende på de mange bøger der skrives …

MEDDELELSER FRA RIGSBIBLIOTEKAREN – 36 årgang nr. 3 – 1985

af førstebibliotekar, mag.art. Ulf Haxen

Kunsten at facsimilere håndskrifter, fremstilling af dele eller hele codices i reproduktion, har udviklet sig med rivende hast indenfor de sidste årtier.

Tidligere tiders firefarvetryk på glittet papir i ofte dårlig indbinding er afløst af en reproduktionsteknik med ni farver og anvendelse af laser og computer til fastholdelse af de fineste farvenuancer og kalligrafiske mønstre. En nyudviklet trykkemetode indfanger detaljen i guld- og sølvilluminationerne og papiret forarbejdes således at pergamentkvaliteten og materialets ælde fornemmes. Endnu har man ikke opfundet den teknik, der gør det muligt at facsimilere direkte på pergament – men den dag synes heller ikke fjern.

Forlaget Facsimile Editions, London, har netop udgivet et pragtværk, som må anses for at være det hidtil mest fuldkomne hvad illuminerede hebraiske håndskrifter i facsimile angår. Det drejer sig om et bibelmanuskript af sefardisk (jødisk-spansk) proveniens udført på bestilling af en velstående jødisk klædehandler, Don Solomon di Braga, i Nordvestspanien, LaCoruña 1476. Tyve år før jødernes fordrivelse fra den iberiske halvø.

LaCoruña Bibelen er opkaldt efter den kristne hebraist, Benjamin Kennicott, på hvis foranledning det 922 siders digre bibelværk blev erhvervet til Radcliffe samlingen i Oxford, 1771. Benjamin Kennicott (1712-1783) fungerede da som bibliotekar ved denne navnkyndige bogsamling. I 1882 overførtes Kennicott bibelen til Bodleian Library’s orientalske samling under signaturen “Kennicott 1”. Til denne dag en af Bodleian’s største klenodier.

Det var samme Kennicott, der under arbejdet med sin store to-binds foliantudgave af Vetus Testamentum Hebraicum cum Variis Lectionibus ansøgte Frederik V gennem dennes udenrigsminister, J.H.E. Bernsdorff, om tilladelse til at anvende de af Carsten Niebuhr ekspeditionen hjembragte bibelmanuskripter til brug for sine tekstkritiske studier. Kennicott kvitterede for den indhentede tilladelse, “… with the warmest gratitude, the Honour of a Promise from His Majesty The King of Denmark, (at the recommendation of my Friend His Excellency The Count de Bernsdorff) that not only these 8 MSS, but also every other in the Royal Library, containing any part of the Hebrew Bible, shall be sent to England, for my own personal inspection”. (note 1).

“Kennicott 1” har ikke blot betydning for forskningen inden for jødisk skrifttradition. Den er også en vigtig kilde til studiet af jødisk miniaturekunst. På 238 af Bibelens sider figurerer de mest forskelligartede motiver hentet fra de bibelske fortællinger vekslende med geometriske paneler, arabisk inspirerede “tæppemønstre”, kalligrafi og filigran samt halvt dyre- og halvt menneskelignende grotesker. Farvevalget er righoldigt, men balanceret, også hvad angår brugen af forgyldninger.

Et af de store problemer i forbindelse med forskningen af middelalderhåndskrifter, kodikologien, er spørgsmål som datering, proveniens, skriver og illuminators identitet etc. Til tider angiver manuskriptets kolofon nogle af oplysningerne, til andre tider oplyses intet som helst. Det bliver da forskernes opgave bl.a. gennem sammenlignende studier af skriftføringen, ikonografiske stilelementer og andre håndskrifthistoriske fænomener, såsom pergamentkvalitet og indbindingsteknik, at placere værket i tid og rum.

For LaCorunabibelens vedkommende (“Kennicott 1”) hersker det enestående forhold, at den har to kolofoner, skrivers og illuminators. Skriveren (HaSofer, på hebraisk), Moses ibn Zabarah, anfører på fol. 438r, at han afsluttede sit arbejde i byen LaCoruña, den tredie dag i den jødiske måned Av, år 5236 efter verdens skabelse, d.e. 24. juli 1476. Han erklærer sig endvidere eneansvar-lig for afskriften af Bibelens 24 bøger, idet han alene afskrev dem (note 2), vedføjede vokaler og masorah (kritiske randbemærkninger), konfererede med den kanoniserede bibelversion, kollationerede og korrigerede. Moses ibn Zabarah omtaler med hyppigt brug af bibelcitater den fremragende unge mand, Isak, søn af den “lærde” og “elskede” Don Solomon di Braga, klædehandleren der kommissionerede bibelkodeksen. Med udgangspunkt i Prædikerens bog 2:12, “Min søn, tag dig i vare, thi der er ingen ende på de mange bøger der skrives …”, udtrykker skriveren, Moses ibn Zabarah, håbet om, at “Herren må gøre Isak istand til at fremme bogproduktionen”.

Her manipulerer Moses ibn Zabarah imidlertid bevidst med versets fulde ordlyd. I virkeligheden advarer Prædikeren mod for megen studeren “for det trætter legemet”.

Som skriver i det konkurrerende bogtryks tidsalder kunne der være god grund til at reklamere for sit håndværk.

Hvis skriver og illuminator ikke var én og samme person, arbejdede de to altid tæt sammen. Moses ibn Zabarah gjorde plads og lavede “layout” for kunstneren, som lod fantasien spille frit indenfor de givne rammer.

Illuminators kolofon på Kennicottbibelens sidste folier siger kort og koncist, “Jeg Josef Hajjim illuminerede og afsluttede denne bog”. Men måden han underskriver sig på viser, at der kunne ligge megen humor bag kopisternes alvorlige metier.

Med facsimile udgaven af LaCoruflabibelen følger et rigt illustreret kommentarbind skrevet af professor Bezalel Narkiss og Aliza Cohen-Mushlin.

Værket er anskaffet til Judaistisk Afdeling.

Noter:

1) Kennicott, B.: The State of the Collation of the Hebrew Manuscripts of the Old Testament. Oxford, 1762-68. KINGS & CITIZENS, Vol. II. New York, 1983.

2) Som direkte forlæg for LaCoruñabibelen tjente Cervera bibelhåndskriftet, Lisabon, 1300.

Una editorial de Londres reprodueix un manuscrit hebreu barceloní del XIII

Avui – diumenge, 31 de maig de 1992

Conxa Rodríguez, corresponsal LONDRES

La Biblioteca Britànica, propietària de l’original, popularitzarà amb pòsters les imatges del llibre

Els 500 exemplars es vendran a un preu aproximat de 400.000 pessetes

La Biblioteca Britànica ha felicitat Michael i Linda Falter per la reproducció que han fet del manuscrit Barcelona Haggadah, un dels tresors de la institució cultural britànica. Barcelona Haggadah és un llibre de pregàries i històries, fet a Barcelona al segle XIII, per la comunitat jueva que feia servir textos semblants en els àpats familiars per celebrar algun esdeveniment religiós. El Haggadah és el bre que ritualment llegeixen les famílies jueves en el sopar de l’inici de la Pasqua jueva (Divendres Sant). El preu de les 500 còpies se situa en unes 400.000 pessetes. El Haggadah, fet a Barcelona abans de l’expulsió dels jueus, té 322 pàgines, moltes il.lustrades.

El manuscrit original, reproduït de forma magistral pels editors Michael i Linda Falter, és propietat de la Biblioteca Britànica des de 1844. La parella d’editors que l’acaben de reproduir han fet tota una obra d’art en les seves 500 còpies, reproduint des de la textura i el color del paper antic fins a les il.lustracions en or que, gota a gota, s’han incrustat manualment sobre les pàgines. El resultat de la laboriosa i meticulosa tasca ha quedat també perfectament reflectit en el preu dels exemplars, que ronda les 400.000 pessetes.

El Haggadah, fet a Barcelona abans de l’expulsió dels jueus, compta amb 322 pàgines, 128 de les quals estan vigorosament il.lustrades amb dibuixos i escenes de la vida quotidiana de la comunitat jueva a Barcelona, fins a la forçada reconversió dels jueus.

Les imatges reflecteixen la florent cultura hebrea de l’actual capital catalana en aquell segle XIII. una època en què els jueus d’altres països europeus es veien obligats a fer simplement de banquers.

El 1459 va costar 50 ducats d’or

El manuscrit original va ser adquirit l’any 1459 per cinquanta ducats d’or per un jueu de Bolonya (Itàlia). Posteriorment, va anar a parar a diferents mans de famílies jueves, fins que la família Ottolenghi el va vendre a la Biblioteca Britànica en els millors moments d’esplendor d’aquesta institució, cap a mitjans del segle passat.

Michael i Linda Falter, especialitzats en la reproducció de textos hebreus, i el cap de Facsimile Editions, amb seu a Londres, han estat tres anys treballant en la reproducció exacta i acurada del Haggadah fet a Barcelona, al mateix temps que han reproduït altres joies editorialscom la Bíblia d’Alba, que els Fal-ter van presentar als reis d’Espanya i al president d’Israel el passat mes de març en l’acte simbòlic de reconciliació hispano-jueva.

La parella, primer unida per l’interès pels textos hebreus, i després pel matrimoni i la família, va començar la seva selecta editorial fa dotze anys, amb la reproducció de la Bíblia de Kennicott, feta a la Corunya l’any 1476 i ara propietat d’una altra prestigiosa biblioteca britànica, la Bodleian d’Oxford.

El manuscrit està considerat una peça mestra del castellà medieval i la cal.ligrafia hebrea. Michael Fa-lter, la tercera generació d’una família d’impressors, rondinava pel departament de manuscrits de la Biblioteca Britànica de Londres quanse li va acudir la idea de reproduir els ancestrals textos exposats al darrere de les vitrines.

Ell i Linda expliquen en la seva casa del barri residencial de Saint John Wood’s de Londres que “l’hebreu, a diferència del castellà, no ha canviat en segles, i això fa que les famílies jueves llegeixin durant dos mil anys la mateixa història en els mateixos textos”.

Una editorial matrimonial

El matrimoni s’ha creat la seva pròpia parcel.la en el negoci editorial. Michael s’encarrega dels textos i la i Linda reprodueix les acolorides i ornamentades il.lustracions.

La parella d’editors ha creat, enels dotze anys que ta que es dediquen a l’ofici, una xarxa d’impressors i artesans que amb ells participen en les reproduccions. Des de Londres viatgen a Milà, on tenen l’impressor que els fa les reproduccions de les pàgines, junt amb la persona que les ajunta, i per això han fet també tot un ofici.

La reproducció del Haggadah fet a Barcelona ha tingut tan bona acollida entre biblioteques i institucions culturals —els clients més habituals de Facsimile Editions—, que el Museu Britànic de Londres ha decidit agafar il.lustracions del llibre per posar-les en productes més populars, com pòsters, postals, bosses de plàstic i fulls informatius, per així difondre massivament imatges del Haggadah barceloní.

Collectors’ corner

Jewish Chronicle – April 3 1992

Meir Persoff – Editor, Judaism Today

Facsimile of Barcelona Hagadah recalls Spanish Jewry’s golden age

Coinciding with the 500th anniversary of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, one of the most exquisite manuscript Hagadot in existence appears this week in facsimile — itself a tribute to the highest standards of lithography and binding. The Barcelona Hagadah, purchased by the British Museum in 1844 for £52 10s., is today recognised as one of the finest illuminated Hebrew manuscripts in the British Library. Dating from the mid-14th century, it is named after an heraldic shield it bears resembling the coat of arms of Barcelona.

At the time of its creation, the Jews of Aragon and Catalonia formed one of the largest communities in Europe, and Barcelona was home to a flourishing centre of manuscript illumination, linked to the court and influenced by French and Italian styles.

Rich in decorative and representational illuminations, the Hagadah is illustrated on no fewer than 128 of its 322 pages, studded with fanciful figures and pictorial scenes that provide fascinating insights into Jewish life in medieval Spain. A lively interest in music is displayed throughout the manuscript, with 28 different instruments appearing in the illustrations. More intimate details, such as the paintings of the Seder, take one straight into a Jewish home of the period, with a synagogue scene reflecting contemporary conditions and traditions.

The illustrations of the Exodus — shown taking place on horseback in medieval costume — the four sons, the rabbis at Bnei Brak and Abraham breaking the idols are of great historical value, while the unrestrained humour of the artist is evident from the images of dogs and rabbits that romp through the pages of the manuscript.

The large, clear script, possibly designed to be read more easily by children, was written on eight lines per page. The text occupies 180 pages, with the remaining leaves containing liturgical poems and prayers for the other days of the festival.

The Barcelona Hagadah is the third facsimile to be produced by Facsimile Editions of London, following the outstanding success of the famed Kennicott Bible and Rothschild Miscellany. It re-creates the overall aura of the original manuscript by including every detail — such as the pricking and scoring ofpages to indicate the marks and lines used by the scribe.

As gold leaf cannot be adequately simulated by printing, the original raised burnished gold has been reproduced by laying leaf by hand in order to achieve the richness of the 14th-century gilding. Each page of the facsimile has been cut to exactly the size and shape of the original, and aged at the edges.

A companion volume contains essays on the palaeography, liturgy, provenance and historical context of the Hagadah, with a new English translation and commentary by Rabbi Dr Harry Rabinowicz, of London, and notes by the late Rabbi Dr David Goldstein, former curator of Hebrew manuscripts and printed books at the British Library (whose “Hebrew Manuscript Painting,” published by the library, contains several illustrations from the Barcelona Hagadah).

Priced at £2,250, the facsimile is in a numbered edition of 500, contained in hand-made slip-cases with certificates bearing the seal of the British Library. Destined primarily for major Hebraica collections throughout the world, it is a fitting tribute to Spanish Jewry’s golden age, so tragically cut short 500 years ago this week.

For less commodious purses, a wide range of inexpensive yet attractive Hagadot and handbooks continues to be published.

At the cheapest end of the range — in cost though assuredly not in quality — comes the Koren Hagadah (£4.99), translated by Professor Harold Fisch and profusely illustrated with reproductions from the Erna Michael Hagadah in the Israel Museum, written in the Rhineland around 1400. For clarity of printing, typography and translation, the Koren edition —a mere five inches by seven — is a festival gem and a perfect companion to the Seder service.

For those seeking unusual insights and contemporary teachings relating to Pesach, the Breslov Hagadah (£8.95) is strongly recommended. Compiled and adapted by Rabbi Yehoshua Starret from the teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, it features midrashic stories of the Exodus, Pesach anecdotes from Chasidic lore, and a joyous journey through Breslov tradition from Pesach to Shavuot.

This handsome volume will shed hours of light, and delight, both as preparation for the Seder and during the ceremony itself.

“Every Person’s Guide toJudaism,” by Stephen J. Einstein and Lydia Kukoff (Jason Aronson, £14.99), contains a useful chapter on Pesach as part of a panorama of contemporary Jewish life and faith.

Art of the Haggadah

Jewish Renaissance – Vol 2 – Issue 3 – Spring 2003

Erica Gordon

FAULTLESS FACSIMILES

The Barcelona Haggadah is among the old illuminated manuscripts immaculately copied by Facsimile Editions. This specialist publishing company grew out of the first meeting of its founders. Michael Falter, descended from an old printing family, naturally arranged to take the girl he fancied, Linda, to view a medieval manuscript on their second date! They fell in love with each other, and with the idea of copying old Hebrew manuscripts as accurately as the combination of modern technology in the hands of the most skilled printers together with age old crafts such as binding, paper-making and gilding would allow. Hebrew manuscripts were chosen partly because the script in which they were written is still almost totally comprehensible today, unlike ancient Greek or medieval German.

Each chosen manuscript has to be photographed with infinite care, reproducing as accurately as possible sometimes as many as 24 colours used by the original artist in a square inch of design. Colour separations are made, using computer-controlled laser scanners. Appropriate hand–made paper is selected. When, as in most cases, the original was on vellum, its character and feel has to be matched by the paper created for it. Where gold is used, often over embossed lettering, the metal leaf has to be carefully matched to the original, and applied so that it remains fixed.

Almost all the processing is done in Italy, under Linda’s supervision. Every detail of the original is included, down to holes in the original skins and needle pricks at the edges of the pages which were used by the scribe to draw guidelines, later rubbed out. Wine stains –often found in haggadot – are carefully rendered in their original colours. Equal care is taken over the choice and execution of the binding.

A volume of scholarly explanation is commissioned to accompany each original book, and is produced with as much care and attention to detail as the facsimile.

After several years of hard work, the Falters have just completed the sumptuous North French Hebrew Miscellany. the British Library’s finest Hebraic treasure

Facsimile Editions can be justly proud of the magnificent books they produce with such respect and loving care.

ART OF THE HAGGADAH

“And thou shalt tell thy son in that day saying: This is done because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt.”

This verse from Exodus (13-8) is the origin of the Passover ceremony. By the first century CE as many as 1.5 million people crammed into the court of the Temple in Jerusalem to witness its most important component: the sacrifice of the Pascal Lamb. In the evening the lamb was eaten, and at the feast psalms of praise and thanks were sung.

The destruction of the Temple forced the transformation of the ritual into a domestic one. Men sat round the table, discussing former ceremonies and praying for the rebuilding of the Temple. Matzah and bitter herbs, symbolising the bitterness of slavery, now became much more important, and wine, which was always drunk with meals throughout the Mediterranean, was included at specific intervals in the proceedings.

Later, the Mishna suggested four questions which might be asked by any intelligent child. It seemed appropriate to end the meal with psalms of gratitude: the Hallel. Thus the Haggadah – literally ‘the telling’ – was laid out some 2,000 years ago virtually as it is now, and survives as possibly the oldest of human celebrations still practised today. Once its form had been settled, it began to be written down.

ILLUSTRATION

The commandment forbidding the creation of graven images ensured the absence of human forms in any books for synagogue use. Sometimes, in some places, this was taken to the extreme of a total ban on any such representation. It applied not only to ultra-Orthodox Jews, but to all Jews living in Moslem countries, where portrayal of the human form was prohibited by the Koran. Consequently decoration in Haggadot produced in Moorish Spain tended to be limited to very elaborate, highly-coloured and gilded imaginative calligraphy.

In non-Muslim countries and northern Europe, however, because the Haggadah was for home, not synagogue use, this prohibition was not applied. Since it was a short book, and meant to explain the festival rituals to children as much as to adults, it became the best-loved Jewish text for illustrators throughout the ages. Northern European illustrators would begin with representations of the opening ceremonials e.g. looking for chametz, and would end with illustrations of the songs such as Chad Gadya, which were mediaeval additions to the festivities. intended to keep the children entertained.

Magnificent examples of old Haggadot can be found in great museum libraries such as the Bodleian and the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. They were products of medieval developments in book production and the burgeoning passion for illuminated manuscripts. Skilled artists and scribes were commissioned by private Christian patrons to produce devotionalworks such as the Book of Hours. This stimulated a parallel Jewish desire for highly decorative manuscripts. The Haggadot, which until the 13th century had been part of a much longer religious text, became a favourite subject for illumination.

Local styles were adopted by the commissioned artists, so that the Haggadot of Spain had full-page framed illustrations, whilst German and Italian versions had elaborate first-letter panels and ornate borders. Itinerant scribes such as Joel ben Simeon created hybrid styles.

The invention of printing in 15th century introduced the use of woodcuts, then woodblocks, and finally, in the 17th century, engraving on copper. Haggadot were produced using all these techniques. In Venice, and then Amsterdam, Haggadot exclusively in Spanish wereproduced for Marrano refugees. In Germany, Yiddish and then German texts were inserted alongside the Hebrew.

The early 18th century saw a revival of beautiful hand-crafted Hebrew manuscripts commissioned by rich hofjuden, who had risen to high positions in the princely courts of Europe.Then came the Enlightenment which brought assimilation, and a consequent decline in Hebrew literacy.

Upheavals and persecutions followed, in which the art of the Haggadah languished. Its revival came in the 1920s-30s when it was used by various artists to interpret their own situation. The most famous of these were Ben Shahn, whose Haggadah was published in 1931, and Arthur Szyk (see above). n

ARTHUR SZYK

Amongst 20th century artists to have created a Haggadah, Arthur Szyk (1894-1951) is outstanding. Szyk was born in Lodz, Poland and he peopled his Haggadah, regarded as the greatest of his works, with characters he observed in the stetl. He began work on it in 1932, just as Nazism was emerging, finishing in 1939. It was published in London. For him it was a political as well as a religious mission. He equated slavery in Egypt with the Holocaust of his own time. The wicked one of the four sons is usually shown as a warrior, in contrast to the studious, peace-loving Jew he should be. In Szyk’s version he becomes a Junker, with monocle, cigar, leather boots and jodhpurs – more German than the Germans! Szyk’s sensuous, richly-coloured lettering blends medieval, Renaissance and oriental with art deco. The illustrations, full of vigorous exotic characters, often tailored to fit ornate cartouches, testify to his brilliant draughtsmanship.

Szyk had already completed several other prestigious, highly decorative projects by 1940. From London he went to the United States. As a totally committed supporter of the idea and then the fact of a Jewish state in Israel, he devoted his artistic energies to its promotion. He turned largely to cartooning and caricature until, at the age of 57, he died of a heart-attack.

Erica Gordon is a writer and artist

Jewish Renaissance Quarterly Cultural Magazine (www.jewishrenaissance.org.uk)

UNA BIBBIA DA COLLEZIONARE

Business Art – Maggio 1992

di Laura Gentili

Ricompare in facsimile una preziosa, Bibbia, quattrocentesca, testimo nianza, di -un’importante operazione culturale, improntata alla tolle ranza, e alla, comprensione reciproca, fra, popoli di -religione diversa

Nel corso di un recente convegno a Milano, Umberto Eco si lamen- tava del fatto che, con l’avvento delle moderne tecnologie, gli studenti stanno perdendo il contatto con l’oggetto libro in sé. Per fortuna ci sono degli eventi bibliografici che contrastano questa tendenza.

Uno di questi ha avuto luogo in giorni molto recenti. Il 31 marzo 1992, dopo cinquecento anni dalla sua promulgazione, il re di Spagna Juan Carlos abrogherà il decreto di espulsione degli ebrei spagnoli. In questa solenne occasione, verrà presentata un’opera di straordinario valore storico e artistico: l’edizione in facsimile della cosiddetta Bibbia di Alba, il più importante manoscritto del regno di Giovanni II. Il capolavoro quattrocentesco presenta 334 miniature di straordinario interesse: a volerlo fu, nel 1422, Don Luis de Guzman, Gran Maestro di Calatrava. Guzman, eminente autorità ecclesiastica della pensò che l’unico modo di favorire la comprensione del pensiero ebraico da parte dei cristiani era quello di tradurre e commentare in castigliano la Bibbia ebraica. Trovò dunque un rabbino, Moses Arragel di Maqueda, in grado di attuare questo difficile progetto. Il rabbino, era inizialmente riluttante; temeva infatti che l’impresa cosa sarebbe stata fonte di ulteriori difficoltà per il suo popolo, ma accettò infine l’incarico e si mise al lavoro.

Don Luis gli affiancò come supervisori un domenicano e un francescano, e diede l’incarico di eseguire le miniature a un nutrito gruppo di artisti cristiani. Nel 1430 il manoscritto venne ultimato: Moses Arragel aveva tradotto in castigliano il testo ebraico, arricchendolo di un commento che poco concedeva all’interpretazione cristiana. Molte delle miniature, poi, raffiguravano l’interpretazione ebraica degli episodi biblici. Oggi esse rivestono per noi una grande importanza storica, perché mostrano in dettaglio armi, strumenti musicali, arredi e costumi della Spagna degli inizi del Quattrocento.

Il manoscritto venne poi sottoposto alle censure e agli esami di rito che culminarono in una pubblica disputa fra teologi ebrei e cristiani. Dopo un così travagliato e laborioso allestimento la Bibbia scomparve misteriosamente, per riapparire solo nel 1622, quando entrò a far parte della biblioteca del Duca di Alba, i cui discedenti hanno di recente autorizzato la riproduzione in facsimile del prezioso manoscritto.

Impresa non facile, che ha richiesto un complesso lavoro durato anni. Innanzitutto, le pagine del manoscritto sono state staccate con estrema cura da James Brockman, un esperto di Oxford; poi sono state fotografate da un fotografo israeliano, David Harris, specializzato in manoscritti antichi. L’editore inglese, la Facsimile Editions, ha lavorato in stretta collaborazione con uno stampatore italiano, le Arti Grafiche Milani , al fine di risolvere tutti i problemi tecnici che una simile operazione comportava. Era prima di tutto necessario ottenere una carta in grado di riprodurre l’esatta consistenza e opacità della pergamena originale, appositamente riprodotta da una cartiera italiana.

Altra grande sfida è stata rappresentata dalla fedeltà delle immagini: le selezioni dei diversi colori sono state ottenute combinando una sofisticata attrezzatura di scanner laser con interventi manuali di estrema precisione. Le prove di ogni pagina venivano regolarmente portate nel Palazzo del Duca di Alba, per confrontarle con gli originali, e rifatte più volte fino ad ottenere la massima accuratezza cromatica.

Anche i diversi tipi di oro e argento usati per il manoscritto, sono stati riprodotti con estrema precisione. Per la rilegatura, dato che quella originaria non esisteva più, è stata fatta una copia fedele di una rilegatura in stile Mudéjar, tipica di quel periodo. L’ edizione 1992 della Bibbia del Duca d’Alba è arricchita da un curatissimo volume di accompagnamento, con la traduzione in inglese del testo in castigliano quattrocentesco, e autorevoli commenti all’opera. Di questa mirabile riproduzione sono stati stampati solo cinquecento esemplari numerati, dopodiché gli impianti di stampa sono stati distrutti. Ma anche solo queste poche centinaia di preziose copie sono sufficienti per la circolazione nel mondo di questo importante documento, che testimonia uno spirito di tolleranza e coesistenza di cui la nostra epoca ha ancora bisogno.

FACSIMILMENTE BELLI

Una piccola casa editrice inglese, la Facsimile Editions , si è specializzata nella riproduzione di preziosi manoscritti che, per la loro fragilità sono praticamente inaccessibili al pubblico. Fu proprio ammirando uno di questi testi, la Bibbia di Kennicott, conservata alla Bodleian Library di Oxford, che a Michael Falter – titolare della casa editrice – venne l’idea di riprodurlo in facsimile.

Naturalmente, queste riproduzioni sono costose. La Bibbia di Alba, per esempio, ha un “prezzo di copertina” di 25 milioni di lire. In precedenza, la Facsimile Editions aveva realizzato la Miscellanea Rothschild – un documento arricchito da miniature del Quattrocento italiano – e un tesoro della British Library, la Haggadah di Barcellona. Per chi volesse saperne di più, l’indirizzo della casa editrice è: 40, Hamilton Terrace, London NW8 9UJ.

Londres imprime la polémica Biblia hebrea de los Alba

el Periódico – Domingo, 15 de diciembre de 1991

MANEL GUITART – Londres

El Comité Sefarad-92 ha encargado a Facsimile Editions 500 copias exactas del texto para conmemorar los 500 años de la expulsión de los judíos de España

La Biblia de los Alba, un documento histórico excepcional del siglo XV, se está imprimiendo en Londres a instancias del Comité Judío Internacional Sefarad-92, para conmemorar el año próximo el quinto centenario de la expulsión de los judíos de España. En la empresa Facsimile Editions se están realizando 500 reproducciones exactas de esta biblia, cuyo original se encuentra desde 1622 en el Palacio de Liria, residencia de los duques de Alba.

El primer ejemplar se entregará al Rey de España, Juan Carlos I, durante un acto público que se celebrará el próximo día 31 de marzo, fecha en la que la reina Isabel la Católica firmó el decreto de expulsión. Una ceremonia que se celebrará con la pretensión de que sea el reencuentro o la reconciliación entre las culturas cristiana y judía.

El libro, de 1.206 páginas soberbiamente ilustradas con 334 miniaturas a todo color, quiere simbolizar el espíritu conciliatorio del 92, puesto que se trató de uno de los últimos esfuerzos para conseguir un entendimiento entre cristianos y judíos, y de intentar frenar el trágico desenlace.

Fue en 1422 cuando Luis de Guzmán, señor de la Orden de Calatrava, encargó al rabino Moses Arragel la traducción al castellano de la Biblia realizada a partir del original hebreo. El clima estaba ya enrarecido desde hacía algunos años: concretamente desde la famosa matanza de judíos de 1391. En 1420, la Inquisición inició las conversiones forzosas que poco resolverían.

Guzmán, sumido en un empeño idealista que la realidad se encargaría de frustrar, pretendía evidenciar ante la implacable Inquisición que las diferencias de fondo entre los textos sagrados de las dos comunidades, la cristiana y la judía, no eran muy graves, que las diferencias entre ambas culturas y religiones no eran irresolubles.

Ocho años de trabajo inútil

Moses Arragel, tras reticencias iniciales motivadas por las circunstancias y por el lógico temor a que una reacción sanguinaria le salpicase, empleó ocho años en la elaboración minuciosa de esta obra maestra, que hace pocas concesiones al pensamiento cristiano. Nunca más se supo de él. Junto a los textos sagrados aparecen los comentarios o interpretaciones judías de aquellos. Los dibujos, con sus reproducciones de objetos, vestuarios, oficios de la época, son un testimonio excepcional del periodo histórico. La correspondencia negociadora entre el rabino y el influyente caballero español ocupa las 25 primeras páginas.

El efecto que produjo la publicación de la Biblia fue el contrario al deseado: se multiplicaron las disquisiciones eruditas, las disputas públicas entre teólogos, caballeros, judíos y moros, y poco pudo hacerse para recuperar el clima de convivencia que había dominado en Sefarad durante varios siglos. El esfuerzo individual de Guzmán para cambiar el curso negativo de las relaciones judeo-cristianas sirvió de poco. Sin embargo, ahí quedó el testimonio de un pasado, que puede contribuir a un mejor presente.

El matrimonio judío formado por Michael y Linda Falter está al frente de la empresa, fruto del interés en rescatar originales históricos de las vitrinas de los museos. La reproducción se quiere fidedigna al máximo. “No sólo debe parecer auténtica, sino que la gente debe sentirla como tal”, dice Linda. El proceso es complejo y de una minuciosidad abrumadora. Se ha buscado el tipo de papel exacto: la misma textura y finura de la vitela del manuscrito. Oro y plata auténticos, miles de pruebas fotográficas, hasta conseguir el matiz de color exacto al original.

Incluso hay que imitar los errores, fruto de las vicisitudes que vivió el libro, del paso de los años: el amarillo del pergamino, los agujeritos que el autor hacía en un extremo de la página para señalar las líneas, el óxido de la plata. Mauricio Hatchwell Toledano, responsable de la Fundación Amigos de Sefarad y promotor de la iniciativa, les pidió “el más bello facsímil jamás producido, ni más ni menos”. Cada ejemplar se venderá a 26.000 dólares y los fondos van a destinarse a la difusión de la cultura judía en España, la antigua Sefarad.

Necesidad de una expiación

El año que viene, el mágico y prometedor 92, España se verá obligada a recordar un episodio doloroso de su historia: el que tiene que ver con sus maltrechas relaciones con la comunidad judía. Pero ha habido además un segundo entierro de la comunidad judía española, de los sefardíes, tras la macabra labor unificadora de la Inquisición: el olvido al que la historia les condenó.

Para algunos sectores judíos las heridas siguen abiertas, y considera necesario que el monarca español pronuncie unas palabras de disculpa hacia el pueblo hebreo. Hay quien mantiene incluso que la cédula de expulsión no ha sido formalmente revocada, y que don Juan Carlos deberá proceder en consecuencia.

En medios de la diplomacia española dan por sentado, en cambio, que las Cortes de Cádiz de 1812 derogaron el decreto y se prefiere dar a la ceremonia el valor del reencuentro entre dos culturas, más que el de la expiación de una culpa.

Quizá la Biblia de los Alba, por el esfuerzo en favor de la tolerancia que representa, se convierta en el remedio diplomático perfecto y emblemático, el símbolo que conecte la España de hoy con la Sefarad de antes del siglo XV. Demostrado quedará que asumir el pasado resulta siempre provechoso.

An olive branch for their wounds

The Times – 14 December 1991

by James Woodall

As Spain basks in the world spotlight next year, the publication of a symbolic Bible will act as a peace gesture to the country’s Jews, James Woodall writes

Fiesta 1992: the celebratory allure of 1492 for Spain is irresistible. Five hundred years on, the country that discovered the Americas is shaping up for a party of gigantic proportions. Not since the heady days of its vast, treasure-plundering empire has Spain exhibited such strident self-confidence. In 1992, that hot, colourful, reluctantly European southern peninsula is back on the world stage, with Barcelona hosting the Olympics, Seville bringing us Expo 92 and Madrid taking on the title of European Capital of Culture.

An advance fillip for all this festive Hispanism came with Madrid’s recent hosting of the Arab-Israeli peace talks. The event itself was remarkable enough. The fact that it was in Madrid had a vibrant historical resonance that went curiously unnoticed at the time: Spain was the last country in the world where Jews and Arabs lived together in peace, mutual harmony and creative accord. They did so from 711AD, for almost 800 years, under the aegis of the Moors, whose caliphates and kingdoms waxed and waned in al-Andalus, the area of Spain which became Andalusia. In the last flowering of a pre-renaissance Semitic civilisation, Islam, Judaism and Christianity all flourished side by side in a spirit of tolerance that seems unimaginable in today’s Middle Eastern climate.

For the Jews and the Moors, 1492 was a bad year. The warrior kings of the Spanish Reconquest had for centuries before been in hot pursuit of the recovery of the country for their rule and their (Christian) church. Ferdinand and Isabella, the “Catholic monarchs”, fulfilled that aim with the capture of Moorish Granada in January 1492. They also wanted the Jews and, to a lesser extent, the Muslims (there were fewer of them) out. Within two months of their victory, and just before signing a contract of discovery with Columbus, they issued their first lethal, racist decree: the expulsion of all Jews from Spain, or the option of conversion. The exact date was March 31, 1492. Columbus set sail four months later.

The Inquisition was already in full swing. This formidably successful institution, endorsed by the Vatican as early as 1483, was to hold sway over Spanish religious life for three centuries — and even as late as the 19th century it had not quite burnt itself out. The result of the violent anti-Semitism that had first flared across Spain in 1391, and again in the mid-15th century, the Inquisition was in its opening decades the single most powerful effective weapon of persecution of Jews until the nazi death camps.

In an uncomfortable irony for 20th-century Jewry, neutral Spain was the one place in Hitler’s Europe where Jews from all over the Continent could seek refuge from the Holocaust. General Franco, the dictator whom Hitler had vainly wooed in 1940, and who was fond of harking back to the Catholic monarchs as peerless, even saintly, exemplars of the essence of Spanish order, let quite a number in. What he never did, however, was reverse the fateful edict of his hero and heroine, Ferdinand and Isabella. That has been left to Spain’s present ruler, King Juan Carlos, the Catholic monarchs’ descendant.

On March 31 next year, 500 years to the day after the decree expelling the Jews from Spain, Juan Carlos will visit the Madrid synagogue in calle Balmés, inaugurated in 1968, and publicly revoke the anti-Jewish laws laid down by his ancestors. It will be one of the most significant acts undertaken by a post-war European monarch, a symbolic offering of the olive branch to the race which was integral to Spain’s medieval cultural and mercantile buoyancy.

For Spanish Jews everywhere — the Sephardim, as they are called — it will be seen as an open royal apology for the mistakes of the king’s forefathers. For a century after the Inquisition was abolished in 1834, some attempts were made to accommodate Sephardim if they wished to live in Spain. In 1978, when the post-Franco Spanish constitution enshrined religious freedom as an inalienable right for its citizens in a newly democratic, secular state, Jews were as welcome to be themselves in Spain as Muslims, Protestants, Mormons or Hindus. Juan Carlos’s visit to the Madrid synagogue, however, will be the first official revocation of a thoroughly nasty piece of medieval race discrimination, and will be a sober reminder amid the 1992 festivities that 1492 was not such a stupendous year for Spain after all.

The Sephardim were people of great diligence, making excellent financiers at the courts of the conquering Christian kings, andtaking prominent roles in all walks of life: as poets, philosophers, astronomers, teachers, artisans, and particularly as translators.

It was the latter talent that caught the attention of Don Luis de Guzmán, a high-ranking churchman, in 1422. He commissioned Moses Arragel de Guadalajara, a rabbi, to translate the Hebrew Bible — the Old Testament — into Castilian. The volume was to be inscribed and illuminated by Christian draughtsmen. Arragel was to supply the Jewish annotations for a text aimed at Christian readership. Guzmán’s motives were simple: to foster, in an environment of increasingly virulent anti-Semitism, understanding and tolerance between the Jewish and Christian communities. The result was one of the most beautiful illuminated manuscripts to survive from medieval Spain. After centuries of safe obscurity in a monastery, during the Inquisition, the Bible passed into the hands of the powerful Spanish family, the Dukes of Alba. Its originator’s enlightened hopes had been cruelly dashed: Guzmán died before its completion, and 70 years after he commissioned it the Jews were hounded out of Spain. Today, it is being reproduced in facsimile form as the Alba Bible, in an edition of (coincidentally enough) 500. The first copy will be presented to Juan Carlos on the occasion of his abrogation of the expulsion edict.

For a race that has for millennia expressed itself in symbols, the king’s gesture will be much admired by Jews the world over: the Alba Bible is a symbol of this historical wound-healing. Mauricio Hatchwell Toledano, a Spanish industrialist, is doing more than anyone to herald its significance. A Jew of Sephardic descent, he has commissioned and financed the Bible’s production by Facsimile Editions, a London-based publisher specialising in Hebrew illuminated texts. His involvement is underscored by his position as president of Sepharad 92, a world organisation of Jews that aims to draw international attention to the Jewish heritage in Spanish culture. “Sepharad has two messages,” he says with almost missionary zeal. “One is educational, to point out the Jewish contribution to western civilisation, which was at its most developed in Spain before 1492. The second is to try to cast the light of unity and tolerance on the three great religions. The Alba Bible is one example of the spirit of reconciliation Sepharad believes in.”

An issue that Sepharad has had to face is Catholic calls for the beatification of Isabella. Hatchwell is unequivocal on this. “Saintliness and cruelty don’t go together,” he says. “She may have been a great statesperson, but there is no rational basis for making her a saint.” He says that the matter of beatification, although supported at one time by the Vatican, was one engaged in by “certain Latin American churchmen” of Spanish origin rather than by any vocal lobby inside Spain. It must be added that the Pope, on a recent visit to Spain, stated that as far as the Inquisition was concerned, “we made a mistake”. Isabella’s prospective sainthood is now off the agenda, which drains Juan Carlos’s duty next March of any potential embarrassment.

The Alba Bible is a unique document; it weighs 12kg and costs £13,500. Jeremy Schonfield, editor of a companion volume that will analyse the significance of the translation and illuminations, calls it “a laboratory specimen”. He admits that the original Alba Bible (now in the palace of the Dukes of Alba in Madrid) failed in its basic intentions — to get Jews and Christians to understand each other better — but maintains that its “ecumenical character”, and the fact that it was the first and last book to attempt to cross the religious barrier at a crisis point in history, make it of special relevance to current trends towards reconciliation.

For the 10,000 or so Jews living in Spain today, the Alba Bible might come to represent a kind of Magna Carta, a symbolic enshrinement of their place in the peninsula’s turbulent history. When in 1992 Juan Carlos announces that they and all other Sephardim are welcome in Spain, perhaps the Alba Bible, which will provide the backdrop for his dramatic revocation, should contain a small footnote: that the man who has sparked off all this 1992 business, and whom the Catholic kings packed off to America, Columbus himself, was quite likely a Jew.

The Alba Bible

Medieval History Magazine – May 2004 – Issue 9

Not many could afford a copy of The Alba Bible but those who can will be investing in something very, very special. This facsimile edition, manufactured to the most exacting standards, measures approximately 405 x 295 x 110mm (16″ x 11.5″ x 4.5″). It contains 513 folios with 334 exquisite miniatures.

The Background to The Alba Bible

The Alba Bible exists because of one man’s desire to heal the rift between Jews and Christians of 15th century Castile. In the five hundred years before 1492 Spain saw rapid developments in Sephardic Jewish culture and education. During the earlier centuries of peaceful co-existence Jews translated the classics making them available to wider audiences.

But, by the 1420s Judeo-Christian relations were explosive with anti-Semitic feelings. In 1422 Don Luis de Guzman of Maqueda, a high-ranking Spanish Churchman, Catholic Grand Master of Calatrava, asked a local scholar, Rabbi Moses de Arragel of Guadalajara, to translate the Hebrew bible into Castilian. It was to be accompanied by a commentary explaining the Jewish point of view.

Guzman believed Christians would gain a better understanding of Jewish doctrine and this would in turn improve relations between the two religions.

Arragel had serious misgivings and reminded Guzman that the Jewish religion prohibits illuminated manuscripts. Eventually a team of Christian illuminators was engaged to illustrate the text. Arragel believed that creating such a manuscript would only highlight conflicts between the religions rather than encourage understanding. It could expose Jews, and himself, to further attack. Perhaps he was right. Guzmán’s efforts failed and the worsening relations between Jews and Christians culminated with the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.

After its completion in 1430 the manuscript disappeared for almost two hundred years until rediscovered in the Library of the Liria Palace, seat of the Grand Duke of Alba and Berwick, from whom it takes its name.

In 1992, wishing to repair the damage done five hundred years earlier, King Juan Carlos revoked the order of the Expulsion and officially welcomed Jews and their descendants, and all Jews, back to Spain. To commemorate this event the Duke of Alba allowed the production of a limited edition of 500 copies. The bible’s new patron would be Senor Mauricio Hatchwell Toledano, a founder member of the Fundacion Amigos de Sefarad.

The Artwork of the Bible

The first twenty-five folios reproduce the lively correspondence between Arragel and Guzman. The Alba is not only a sound record of the history and social conditions relating to Jews at the time, but it is also a very fine piece of visual art.

Folio 1 verso shows Don Luis de Guzman ordering Rabbi Moses of Arragel to translate the Hebrew Bible into Castilian. Arragel is shown with uncut hair and a beard in accordance with a statute of 2nd January 1412 that forced Jews to have long hair and beards. Throughout the manuscript Jews are depicted in this way.

On Folio 72 verso Moses is shown presenting the Law to Israel. Moses holds the two tablets of the law which are disproportionately larger than any other item in the miniature. At the foot of the miniature is a group of Hebrews. Look closely to the right of the group. There seems to be a caricature of a Jew with hunch back and hooked nose! Perhaps Arragel’s fears were justified and the illuminators used this opportunity to ridicule the Jews.

The Production of the Facsimile

Paper for this facsimile was milled in Italy, carefully formulated to feel and look like the original vellum. The pages of the manuscript were photographed using large-format film and proofs were meticulously compared to the originals and examined for faults. The quires are hand-sewn and the quire formation of the original Alba Bible has been faithfully reproduced.

Each raised gold dot and every minute brush-stroke was reproduced using a unique process developed by Linda and Michael Falter. The metal leaf is applied individually to every illustration and the layers slowly built up so that the facsimile has the raised appearance and texture of the original.

The facsimile consists of two volumes, the Bible itself and its companion commentary. Senor Hatchwell invited leading experts to analyse and explain the manuscript. Under the editorship of Jeremy Schonfield, acknowledged for his expertise in Jewish culture and medieval manuscripts, the manuscript is set in its historical context.

Shlomo Ben-Ami, former Israeli Ambassador to Spain, explains the contribution to Spanish civilization of Sephardi Jewry. Sonia Fellous-Rozenblat, Professor of Jewish Art at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris, looks at the background to the commissioning of the manuscript and explores the symbolism of its iconography. Adriaan Keller, Doctoral researcher at Leiden University, investigated the palaeography and codicology of the manuscript. Moshe Lazar, Professor of Comparative Literature at U.C.L.A., studies the bible translation and the commentary appearing in the manuscript. Angus McKay, Professor of Medieval Spanish History at the University of Edinburgh, discusses Jewish-Christian relations in Spain at the period of the Alba Bible.

Only 500 copies of the facsimile and its companion were produced. Photographic plates have now been destroyed to ensure the fidelity of the facsimile.

Frances Spiegel

The Duke of Alba’s Castilian Bible

Letter Arts Review 2003 – Volume 18 Number 4

Limited edition 500 copies

Published by Facsimile Editions Ltd, 1992

513 folios numbered 1-513 (1026 pages)

334 miniatures

16 x 11.5 (40.5 x 29.5)

Two Volumes

Reviewer: Frances Spiegel

HISTORY OF THE ALBA BIBLE

The manuscript known as the Alba Bible came into existence because of one man’s sincere wish to heal a growing chasm between the Jews and Christians of fifteenth-century Castile. In the 500 years before 1492, Spain witnessed considerable development in Sephardic Jewish culture and education. During these centuries of peaceful co-existence, Jews translated the classics, making them available to wider audiences.

Works by Plato and Aristotle and Maimonides’ “Guide to the Perplexed,” one of the great intellectual Jewish works, were translated from Arabic into Hebrew and Latin, thus influencing Christian scholars such as Albertus Magnus and his student, Thomas Aquinas.

However, by the 1420s, Judeo-Christian relations had reached an all-time low with anti-Semitic feelings running wild. In 1422, because of the deteriorating situation, a high-ranking Spanish churchman, Don Luis de Guzman of Maqueda, Catholic Grand Master of Calatrava, asked a local scholar, Rabbi Moses de Arragel of Guadalajara, to translate the Hebrew Bible into the local vernacular, Castilian. It was to be accompanied by a commentary explaining the Jewish point of view. Guzman believed Christians would gain a better understanding of Jewish doctrine and this would in turn improve relations between the two religions.

Arragel had serious reservations about this project. Firstly, he reminded Guzman that the Jewish religion prohibits figurative illustration. (A team of Christian illuminators was subsequently engaged to illustrate the text. The illustrations show that they were artists of varying levels of skill, and were most probably local artisans since all the illuminations were painted in the local regional style.)

Secondly, Arragel fervently believed that creating such a manuscript would only highlight conflicts between the religions rather than encourage understanding. It could even expose Jews, and himself, to further attack. Perhaps he was right. Guzman’s efforts failed, and the worsening relations between Jews and Christians culminated with the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.

The script Arragel used for the Bible is Gothic bookscript, or textualis, a popular script of the time. The commentary surrounding the main text is written in a condensed hand. The difference between the two scripts gives the impression of more than one scribe, but it was probably written entirely by Rabbi Moses of Arragel who was a well-known calligrapher and artist in the area. The commentary includes extracts drawn from rabbinical writings such as the Talmud, Targumin, Midrashim and the Zohar, the source of Jewish mysticism. Despite Arragel’s perseverance in giving the Jewish point of view, Christian influences are visible. For example, there is an entire passage from the Christian Latin Vulgate Bible.

Little is known of Arragel’s activities after he finished the manuscript in Maqueda on Friday, June 21, 1430. Although he had been promised a generous remuneration, he was not paid for his work. The manuscript disappeared for almost two hundred years until rediscovered in the Library of the Liria Palace, seat of the Grand Duke of Alba and Berwick, from whom it takes its name.

In 1992, wishing to repair the damage done five hundred years earlier, King Juan Carlos officially welcomed Jews back to Spain. To commemorate this event, the Duke of Alba allowed the production of a limited facsimile edition of 500 copies. The bible’s new patron would be Senor Mauricio

Hatchwell Toledano, a founding member of the Fundacion Amigos de Sefarad. In his quest for perfection, Señor Toledano gave the following instructions to Michael and Linda Falter of Facsimile Editions, London: “I want the most beautiful facsimile ever produced, no more, no less…” And this is precisely what he got.

In total there are 513 folios with 344 miniatures. The first 25 folios reproduce the lively correspondence that took place between Arragel and Guzman. The Alba Bible is not only a sound record of the history and social conditions relating to Jews at the time, but it is also a very fine piece of visual art.

Folio 1 verso (page 58) shows Don Luis de Guzman ordering Rabbi Moses of Arragel to translate the Hebrew Bible into Castilian.

Arragel is shown with uncut hair and a beard in accordance with a statute of January 2, 1412, which ordered Jewish men to have long hair and beards. Throughout the manuscript Jews are depicted in this way. Folio 1v has an almost full-page border, highly decorated with flowers and foliage. The border is occupied by amusing characters and bizarre creatures typical of manuscripts of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. The outstanding feature of this page is the purple and gold capital P standing approximately half the height of the column to show its importance in the text. The P grows out of the border at its head and base and the infill of the P’s counter space echoes the border’s floral pattern. Since manuscript pages were not numbered, a landmark as richly decorated as this would have served as a mnemonic to help the reader navigate the manuscript.

Folio 26 recto is another landmark page: “In the beginning…” It is dominated by a luxuriously gilded and decorated rectangle indicating the beginning of the Book of Genesis. The rectangular border gives a frame to the gold emblazoned initial. The initial is symmetrically decorated inside and out with an intricate pattern of pink flowers on a blue background. The four lines of text above the initial are also gilded.

Folio 59 recto shows the start of the Book of Exodus. This page has a full-height bar border out of which grows green and blue foliage. The border appears to rise from a winged creature at the foot of the page. A large initial stands alone and is intricately decorated.

The importance of initials is shown by their height in relation to the text. The main initial on this page stands eleven lines tall whereas the smaller initials are only four lines tall. The smaller initials are typically red and blue alternately. Not all the initials in the Alba Bible are gilded or, indeed, highly elaborate —many are quite simple. For example, folios 320 verso and 325 recto show very simple initials drawn in blue and decorated with red ink.

There are many half- and full-page illustrations throughout the Alba Bible. One such illustration, “Cain Kills Abel,” (folio 29 verso), shows Arragel’s interpretation of the event. A similar interpretation is given in The Zohar, the principal cabalistic work of Judaism. On the same folio is a heavily gilded initial standing six lines tall. It is embellished with a symmetrical pattern in blue ink surrounded by a linear pattern that gives way to elaborate curly lines. These increase the overall height of the initial to 17 lines thus giving it a greater importance than its six lines might imply.

My favorite folio is 72 verso (page 58). This full-page miniature portrays Moses presenting the Law to Israel. He is standing barefoot on Mount Sinai, his head adorned with rays. Moses holds the two tablets of the law which are disproportionately larger than any other item in the miniature. The text of the Ten Commandments is written in two columns of five lines each and is arranged asymmetrically. If you look closely, the original guidelines drawn by the scribe are visible between the tablets. At the foot of the miniature is a group of Hebrews. Looking closely to the right of the group, there seems to be a Jewish caricature with hunch back and hooked nose! Perhaps Arragel’s fears were justified and the illuminators used this opportunity to ridicule the Jews.

THE PRODUCTION OF THE FACSIMILE

The details of the production of the facsimile edition are just as interesting as the Bible itself. The paper was milled in Italy, carefully formulated to feel and look like the original vellum. Binding expert James Brockman disbound the pages of the manuscript so that each page could be laid flat for photography. The photography was carried out by Israeli photographer David Harris. Both experts worked on site at the Palace de Liria in Madrid. A large-format film, specially manufactured in a single batch, was used to ensure the correct color balance. The proofs of every page were meticulously compared to the originals and examined for faults.

Each raised gold dot and every minute brush stroke was examined and faithfully reproduced using a unique process developed by Linda and Michael Falter. The metal leaf is applied individually to every illustration and the layers are slowly built up so that the facsimile has the raised appearance and texture of the original. As the original binding no longer exists, a morocco goatskin Mudèjar-style binding of the period on wooden boards, blind-tooled with interlacing geometric designs and finished with solid brass clasps on leather thongs, was faithfully copied. The facsimile consists of two volumes of equal importance: the Bible itself and its companion commentary.

Recreating the Multi-Coloured Verve and Glamour of Medieval Manuscripts

Centre Piece – June 1991

Guests at Yarnton Manor recently heard about a distinguished project in the world of books that owes much to the Oxford Centre and which is attracting increasing notice.

The lecturer, Michael Falter, affirmed that there is perhaps no publishing house today that treasures the ancient craft-skills needed to recreate the multi-coloured verve and glamour of medieval manuscripts than the family-run firm set up by him and his wife, Linda.

From a specially designed garden studio at their London home, they supply an international clientele of art-lovers, connoisseurs, great libraries and scholars, with limited editions of facsimiles of unique Hebrew handwritten books, the originals of which are stored out of reach of the public and subject to restricted access.

A Tribute to the Centre

Michael Falter’s lecture was a tribute to the role of the Oxford Centre in founding “Facsimile Editions” about a decade ago. He described how the President, Dr David Patterson, first pointed out to him that one of the most stunning of medieval Hebrew Bibles, the Kennicott Bible, is in the holdings of the Bodleian Library, and he introduced the Falters to the then Senior Assistant, Ron May. (Mr May is a member of the Centre’s Library Committee.)

Dr Patterson and Mr May had immediately responded to the Falter’s dream of making this manuscript, packed with illuminations and encased in an unusual box-binding that protects it all around, available to a wider audience than ever before. The fragility of the original makes it necessary to restrict access, and to preserve it in a highly controlled environment. In practice it can never be touched or handled by a member of the public. If one could only reproduce it with sufficient fidelity, the Falters argued, then practically anyone could experience the sensations of handling medieval manuscripts and share in a world of books printed with the personalities of their ancient makers, and marked by centuries of vicissitudes since many were snatched from destruction.

What the Falters could not have predicted when they began, was the difficulty of matching new materials to ancient ones, just how little was known about reproducing manuscripts to a high quality, and how long it would take them to develop the necessary techniques. In ten years they have completed just two projects: the first is the Kennicott Bible, and the second, an Italian masterpiece, the Rothschild Miscellany, one of the finest manuscripts in the collections of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. They are currently at work on a treasure of the British Library in London – the Barcelona Haggadah, which will shortly be available for the discerning (and the wealthy!) to use at their Passover-eve Seders, as was originally intended.

Printing has been in Michael’s family for generations. His grandfather sold printer’s type in Prague, and his father qualified at the School of Printing in Vienna, before fleeing to Britain just before War broke out, to set up a business in repairing and renovating the massive presses of those days.

Michael went to the London College of Printing and then joined the family business. His father had saved two antique printing presses, and Michael had the idea of setting up a high-quality traditional printing house to produce finely made books in limited print runs. It was with this in mind that he contacted Dr Patterson. “I suggested that I donate the presses to Yarnton and they could set up a press there and use it to reprint old Hebrew works. But they did not have the budget for such a project,” Michael said in an interview for this article. A fire later destroyed the presses. But undaunted Michael was determined, as a hobby, to carry out such work. “Something to keep us busy on Sunday afternoons,” he said.

Having seen the Kennicott Bible, Linda and Michael wanted to reproduce it and make an exact facsimile copy so that many more people, not just scholars, could see it. The reproductions would be expensive, but, as Michael said, everything is relative, as there is a huge amount of meticulous handwork involved in making them.

They contemplated printing their facsimiles on vellum or parchment, the materials preferred by medieval scribes. But these proved so variable in quality, and so individual in the way they held the precision-coloured inks, that the Falters turned to the idea of finding a paper that would reproduce the tactile qualities of parchment, without any of the problems of shrinkage, expansion and crinkling characteristic of natural skins. They finally devised their own recipe. But their carefully designed paper, produced for them in a small Alpine mill, daunted most printers, due to its low finish and high absorbency.

A Long Search

It took a long search to find the right craftsman printer, and when they at last found Luigi, it was because he had featured in the 1967 Year Book of Italian Printers that Michael’s father had given him shortly before he died. Luigi looked on the Kennicott Bible project as the book to crown his long career in printing art books.

And so a hobby became a professional task, with Linda and Michael combining in the firm “Facsimile Editions,” both giving up their own occupations to begin this work. Michael had been in the computer business and Linda had studied art in Mexico and France and had lived and worked in America, Switzerland, Iran and Israel.

Each facsimile project begins with the making of a complete set of large-format photographs of the original manuscript from which colour-separations are prepared. In printing a book with illustrations, each colour is printed separately, requiring multiple checkings of colour and ink density, in which Linda is an expert. Due to the separation of colours, each single sheet of paper may have to be guided through a printing machine up to 8 times, each process involving the risk that images might not coincide. A single slip could destroy weeks of work.

Once the page is printed, the gold must be applied by hand. Seven craftsmen spent four months adding gold to the pages of the Kennicott Bible; and still more time was spent reproducing the various mottled and burnished gildings in the Rothschild Miscellany. Then the uneven edges of the parchment pages, and even the marginal prickings used by the scribes to guide their writing, were added. In the Rothschild Miscellany, there were 12 million. Not a detail is missed.

Lastly the bindings. Only the most durable leathers are used for reproducing the ornate covers of these ancient manuscripts. The Falters are aware that their books are made of materials that will last as long as the manuscripts themselves, now treasured in museums. “They will long outlast most books printed in this century”, said Michael. “The yellowing of paper you often see on new books means they will self-destruct before long. Ours are made to last for centuries, so they’ve got to be right”.

Help from Scholars

But Linda and Michael are not content to publish their books merely as very beautiful and important facsimile manuscripts. They know that “Facsimile Editions” are supplying these books to a world largely ignorant of the culture that gave birth to them. “How many people can read even the Bible in Hebrew, let alone some of the medieval poems and stories in them. It was so frustrating that they were literally a closed book to us. We decided to ask for help from scholars” said Linda.

Again it was the Oxford Centre that stepped in with contacts and suggestions for consultants, and when the Kennicott Bible facsimile appeared, it was accompanied by a comprehensive guide to the cultural background, history and artistry of the book, which took Professor Bezalel Narkiss and Dr Aliza Cohen-Mushlin nearly a year to write. Since the companion volume is an inseparable part of the facsimile project, it too was printed on handmade paper, and bound in leather.

The Rothschild Miscellany, a far more complex manuscript, needed to be described not only as a work of art, but as the product of a sophisticated Renaissance view of life. An international team, including Malachi Beit-Arié, Shlomo Simonsohn, Israel Ta-Shema, Luisella Mortara-Ottolenghi and Mirjam Foot, wrote a substantial and fascinating volume describing the manuscript from the points of view of palaeography, history, liturgy, art history and binding research.

The Falter’s present project, the Barcelona Haggadah, will be accompanied by a volume that contains not only all of these, but also a translation in verse of the extensive anthology of Hebrew medieval poems, some of which have never before appeared in print. The eight contributors, and their editor, Jeremy Schonfield (who also teaches at the Oxford Centre), are producing a companion volume that will fully explain and introduce each aspect of the manuscript.

Linda and Michael are now acknowledged experts in the making of facsimile books, to such an extent that the Library of Congress, Washington, approached them for advice over what they described as “insurmountable problems” in producing a facsimile of the Washington Haggadah. They are “currently helping them out with their predicament”.

Their skill in the production of beautiful books will, they hope, shortly lead to them being commissioned to produce a facsimile of the magnificent Spanish Alba Bible for the International Jewish Committee for Sepharad ’92. The facsimile of this huge Castillian manuscript – a translation of the Hebrew Bible – will be presented to King Juan Carlos of Spain on March 31, 1992 when he will join the Spanish Jewish community in Madrid in a synagogue service at which he will denounce the Inquisition and formally welcome the Jews back to Spain.

It is fitting that the Oxford Centre, which is devoted to interpreting and rediscovering the relevance of centuries of Jewish culture for a modern world, should be associated with projects which bring new currency and life to the most precious possessions of Jewish communities and individuals down the ages – their manuscript books.

Precious Treasures – Creating a Legacy

Hamodia – December 14, 2001

By Rabbi Daniel Remer

It was on a Sunday afternoon in the late 1970s that Michael Falter, the third generation of a family that had been associated with the printing industry since the late 1800s, was strolling in the King’s Library in London, thinking how he would love to be able to reproduce one of the Hebrew manuscript treasures on display. Then he could study it in its entirety and at his leisure, as opposed to just glimpsing the two pages that lay open behind glass in the museum.

This idea prompted him to make further inquiries, and he met with the curator of Hebrew manuscripts at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. There he was shown and overwhelmed by the famous Kennicott Bible. It was not long before Michael and his wife decided to reproduce copies of this manuscript, and so was born the London-based Facsimile Editions, the world’s leading pioneer in the reproduction of ancient Hebrew manuscripts. This family-run company is dedicated to bringing out of obscurity some of the finest and most important Hebrew manuscripts in the world, reproducing them to a standard hitherto unknown in the history of publishing.

In 1980, when Mr. and Mrs. Falter began the Kennicott Bible facsimile project, few believed that this colossal enterprise could ever come to fruition. The Kennicott Bible, one of the most beautiful medieval Spanish Hebrew manuscripts, was copied by the scribe Moshe Ibn Zabara in 1476. It was commissioned by Yitzchak ben Shlomo di Braga of La Coruna, Spain. The Kennicott Bible is one of the few Hebrew manuscripts that contain not only the scribe’s signature but also that of the artist who illuminated it. Thus we know that it is entirely the work of Jewish hands. The illustrator, Yosef ibn Chaim, wrote his name in fabulous characters, with the inscription “I, Yosef ibn Chaim, have illuminated and completed this book.”

The manuscript was completed shortly before the final expulsion of the Jews from Spain. Even at times of unbelievable hardship, there were those who were dedicated to the perpetuation and beautification of our heritage. The manuscript includes the commentary of Rabbi David Kimchi, known as the Radak, and consists of 922 pages, of which 238 are illuminated with lively colors, burnished gold and silver leaf.

The Falters produced 550 copies of the Kennicott Bible. The project took five years to complete, and the Bodlian Library was moved to write that it was “perhaps the most faithful and exact copy ever to be produced.”

The Rothschild Miscellany, on display at the Israel Museum, proved to be an even greater challenge, since the goal of every Facsimile Editions project is to produce a facsimile as close to the original as is humanly possible. Tremendous efforts were made to impart to each volume not only the minute details but also the feel of an original.

In order to reproduce the Rothschild Miscellany, a great deal of research and further technical development was required, because the original manuscript is lavishly decorated on almost every page.

The Rothschild Miscellany was commissioned by Moshe ben Yekusiel Hakohen of Italy in 1470. Its 948 pages contain a total of thirty-seven books, including a siddur, Tehillim, Haggada, piyutim, midrashim, and works on halacha, Kabbala and science.

To produce this volume, the Falters sought out a company in Italy that had practiced the master printer’s craft for many generations, and the couple moved to Italy temporarily in order to supervise every stage of the facsimile’s production. The original manuscript was hand-copied and illuminated on vellum, a type of parchment that is soft and translucent. Its pages were measured for thickness, weight and opacity, and a new type of paper, virtually indistinguishable from the manuscript’s vellum, was specially milled in Italy.

The paper mill worked for over a year. The paper it produced has been widely acclaimed as the closest likeness to vellum ever achieved. The 160-gram paper is uncoated and has a neutral pH with the same natural characteristics of animal skin.

The printing of the minutely detailed, exquisite illuminations in twelve colors demanded a great deal of skill and perseverance. Color separations were made for each of the 948 pages, and every one was individually checked against the original manuscript in Jerusalem and then reproofed in Italy, until the color was exactly right. This meant that the Falters had to fly back and forth between Jerusalem and Italy fourteen times.

No printing process can adequately simulate a manuscript’s gold leaf, so the couple decided that the only way to reproduce raised, burnished gold was to lay metal leaf by hand, thereby achieving the richness and feel or the original gold. The manuscript contains thousands of illustrations, decorated with powdered and flat gold, faithfully reproduced.

Once printed, each page was cut to the exact shape of the original and then aged at the edges. Each work is hand-bound, and its cover too is an exact replica of the original.

After the completion of the Barcelona Haggada copy, the facsimile was exhibited alongside the original, and no one other than the Falters were able to detect which was the original and which the facsimile. No previously published facsimile has achieved this precision.

Mr. Falter admits that the Barcelona Haggada is his most cherished work. The original is recognized as one of the finest illuminated Hebrew manuscripts in the collections of the British Library. It dates from the mid-fourteenth century.

Of all categories of Hebrew manuscripts, the Haggada tends to be the most extensively and richly decorated. From the inscriptions on the Barcelona Haggada manuscript, we learn that in 1459 a Shalom Latif of Jerusalem sold it to Rabbi Moshe ben Avraham of Bologna for fifty gold ducats, and so it left Spain before the expulsion. The manuscript also bears the signature of an ecclesiastical censor dated 1599. In 1844 it was bought by the British Museum.

The Barcelona Haggada was Facsimile Editions’ third project, after which the company went on to produce the Rothschild Haggada, the original of which is owned by the Israel Museum. This Haggada was written in Italy in 1479 and is exceptional in its elegant and elaborate illustrations of the Pesach story.

Facsimile Editions’ other works include the 1,043-page Alba Bible, produced between 1422 and 1430, one of the most important of Spanish manuscripts and a thirteenth-century Tehillim produced in 1280 known as the Palma Psalter, named after Palma, its town of origin, with the commentary of the Ibn Ezra. Perek Shira and Me ‘ah Brachos were smaller productions but of no less quality, as was the Torah Scroll Fragments project.

Now the Falters have embarked on what may be considered their greatest challenge yet: a manuscript known as the North-French Hebrew Miscellany. This is one of the world’s most important Hebrew treasures and the British Library’s finest treasure.

The work was written and lavishly illustrated in northern France in about 1280. The contents of this manuscript are so varied that it would be better categorized as a library than as a book. It comprises eighty-four different groups of texts, including hundreds of poems, Tanach, siddur and machzor, many halachic works and the earliest known copy of Sefer Mitzvos Katan, which was written in 1277.

The patron must have been a Torah scholar with considerable means at his disposal. Not only does the manuscript contain the texts that he considered important; it is also a costly work of art. The illustrations richly reflect the values, memories and ideas around which Jewish life revolves, including the dangers faced by the Jewish people, their hopes for redemption and the defeat of evil.

The manuscript probably left France when its owners were banished during the wave of persecution against Jews in 1306. By 1479 it had reached Italy and a little later was in Venice. By the fifteenth century it had found its way to northeastern Italy and was rebound in Modena, near Bologna.

The magnificent calf binding, which is still intact, bears the arms of the Rovigo family, one of whose most eminent members, the mekubal Rabbi Avraham ben Michael, may have owned the manuscript.

The manuscript finally came into the possession of the Reina Library of Milan and remained there until 1839, when it was acquired by the British Museum. The manuscript contains a staggering 1,500 pages, and the Falters plan to produce only 360 copies of the North-French Hebrew Miscellany rather than 550, the number produced of their previous facsmiles.

After each edition is completed, the printing plates are destroyed (in compliance with halachic requirements) in order to preserve the significant investment value of each facsimile. Work on the Northern-French Hebrew Miscellany is well under way; the Falters are hoping to publish this work in October 2002.

Who would imagine that the seed of inspiration planted that Sunday afternoon in the King’s Library would yield such fruits? Twenty years of work on Hebrew manuscripts have created a library that enables libraries and collectors worldwide to obtain these facsimiles, offering much broader access to the manuscripts. Whereas before there existed only a single copy of each work, belonging to just one library in the world, now many libraries and museums worldwide own copies of these treasured Hebrew manuscripts.

It is the Falters’ hope that these facsimiles will be passed down to future generations by those individuals who have purchased copies, thus preserving the great wealth of the Jewish heritage for future generations.

As good as old

The Jerusalem Post – 29 August 1987

by David Horovitz

AT $5,500 a copy, Mike and Linda Falter’s facsimile edition of the Kennicott Bible is hardly a bargain.

But when you learn that it took five years to produce, in a limited edition of 550 copies, that it contains 238 hand illuminated pages with gold and silver, that it necessitated the development of a new kind of vellum, and that the binding is fine Moroccan goat skin over wooden boards, you begin to see where the money is going.

The original Kennicott reposes in Oxford University’s Bodleian Library, inaccessible to all but the most carefully vetted students of Hebrew manuscripts. It was written in Spain in the late 15th century by Moses Ibn Zabara, at the commission of Isaac Ibn Don Solomon di Braga, a La Coruna businessman who wanted it as a gift for his son.

Widely renowned as one of the most beautifully-illuminated Hebrew manuscripts in existence, its pages are adorned with a range of rich colours, burnished gold and silver leaf, in the stylized designs of artist Joseph Ibn Hayyim.

After the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, the Bible disappeared, to resurface in Oxford in 1771, where English Christian Hebraist Benjamin Kennicott purchased it from a Patrick Chalmers, for the exorbitant sum of 50 guineas.

Mike Falter, a London College of Printing graduate and a microcomputer software salesman, discovered it in the Bodleian. He decided that it was an ideal vehicle for his new Sunday afternoon hobby. On numerous visits to the British Museum, in the past, he had lamented the fact that only two pages could be read of each of the beautiful Hebrew manuscripts on display. Why not produce facsimile editions of such manuscripts, he thought, reproducing every detail, down to the fingermarks and the “foxing” (discoloration caused by dampness) around the edges of the pages, so that more people would be able to look through the numerous illuminations.

He took his girlfriend, Linda, to look at the Kennicott and she was as keen on the idea as Mike. It is an understatement to say that they underestimated the difficulties; by the time they had completed the Bible, they were married, with two children.

Their first problem was persuading the Bodleian to let them photograph the Bible. When agreement was finally secured, the library insisted on using its own photographer, who shot in less than ideal conditions, thus causing trouble when it came to matching up colours later in the process.

Then came the long quest for a printer, prepared to experiment with new paper and devote his press to the painstaking work of producing what the Falters were determined would be the most accurate facsimile ever made.

There were no takers for the project in Britain, but a phone call from Italy was followed by the arrival at the Falter home of Luigi Canton, a Milan printer who had already begun experimenting with different kinds of paper, and had also done some work on reproducing the intricate box-binding that has preserved the Kennicott so well.

“Luigi came over brimming with confidence,” Mike recalls. “He was sure that this was going to be a wonderful book, and he wanted to be part of it. But when he saw all the gold in the original, his face fell. He knew he didn’t have a machine that could do the delicate gilding.”

Eventually, he heard of a $400,000 machine in Switzerland that could achieve a similar finish to the original, but he decided it would be better to gild by hand. “Seven people worked for four months gilding the 550 editions.” To cut a long story short, Luigi took on the job, the colour transparencies were flown to Milan, and the presses began to roll.

It took several trips to Oxford to get all the colours right, a task not helped by the sheer range of shades used by Ibn Hayyim. The real difficulties though, came with the paper. “We used uncoated paper, and the slightest variation, even in the humidity in the press, could cause it to contract or expand,” Linda said. “So Luigi had his air conditioner overhauled, and we got through.”

They had expected the printing to take about six weeks, but it took nearly four months, tying up Luigi’s best press. On Saturdays, his staff would have to rush through all the other orders that had been building up during the week.

Finally in March 1985, the Kennicott facsimile was printed, gilded, bound and ready for sale. The Sunday afternoon hobby had eventually led to both Mike and Linda giving up their jobs, and borrowing money from every source they could find, but the final product was well worth the attention they had lavished on it.

It has the look and feel of the original; one is almost scared to turn the pages for fear of damaging them. The Bodleian itself has paid the Falters the supreme compliment of putting the facsimile on display. In the past 200 years, only 30 scholars had been allowed to study the original. Now it is available to everyone.

Over 300 copies of the Kennicott – which comes with a companion volume of introduction by Prof. Bezalel Narkiss – have been sold, to university libraries, scholars and private individuals.

THE FALTERS were so buoyed by their success that they embarked on their second facsimile edition, that of the 944-page Rothschild Miscellany, a one-volume collection of more than 70 Jewish liturgical and secular works in Hebrew, commissioned around 1470 in Italy.

Housed in the Israel Museum, the Miscellany presents hardly less of a challenge than did the Kennicott Bible, but the Falters are old hands by now.

“When we approached the Bodleian with our idea for the Kennicott Bible, they looked at us as if we were mad,” says Linda. “After all, we had no experience at all. They suggested that perhaps we should start off with a pamphlet. Now that we’ve got the Kennicott behind us, museums take us a little more seriously.”

Again the Falters began to experiment with various papers – the original Miscellany is inscribed on foetal vellum, the skin of unborn calves – and to carefully match the 12-colour illuminations that decorate no fewer than 816 of the Miscellany pages.

Again the gold leaf is being laid by hand, and minute care is being taken to reproduce every aspect of the original, down to the tiny pricking holes made by the scribe to guide him in the writing of the text.

Despite the difficulties, the Miscellany should be completed by next year, and the Falters are already eyeing the British Museum’s Barcelona Haggada for their next project.

“Over the years, we are hoping to build up a whole library of these fabulous books,” says Mike, “and obviously, with each one, our experience is broadening, and the problems are more easily surmountable.”

Although it is taking them less time to produce the facsimiles now, the use of costly materials and skilled craftsmen is keeping prices high: the advance price for the Rothschild Miscellany is $5,500 but post-publication it rises to $6,300.

Barcelona’s Olympian Haggadah

Hampstead and Highgate Express – April 17, 1992

Not only is today Good Friday, it is also the beginning of Passover. As Jews prepare for tonight’s ritual seder, Liz Sagues reports on a Haggadah — the seder prayer book—with a difference.

MICHAEL FALTER looks towards his young son. “Gideon would be able to read out of that manuscript. It is not just a picture book, not just a beautiful object. It is something you can use.”

The book in question was produced more than 600 years ago, splendidly illuminated in the monastic Christian tradition with narrative scenes and fabulous creatures. But the Barcelona Haggadah celebrates a different religion, and is as practical a prayer book today, its producer-infacsimile emphasises, as it was for the unknown Jew who commissioned it in 14th century Spain.

The key lies in its language. “Hebrew has not evolved as a language; 500-year-old Hebrew can be understood by anyone who knows modern Hebrew.”

That was one of the attractions that the British Library’s collection of medieval Hebrew manuscripts held for Falter. “I was just wandering round and saw all these beautiful manuscripts behind glass. I was upset that was all I would be able to see, and that is where I got the idea to reproduce these treasures, so people would not just be able to see them but also to own a copy.” And, if they were practising Jews, use it.

From idea to reality has been a slow business, but it has become a business, operated from the Falter home in Hamilton Terrace, St John’s Wood. The idle thought of the late 1970s became a positive plan in the early 1980s, but it was not until this year that one of those British Library manuscripts was reproduced under the imprint of Facsimile Editions.

First facsimile was the Kennicott Bible, a slightly later masterpiece of medieval Spanish Hebrew calligraphy and illumination, commissioned in La Coruna in 1476, and now one of the treasures of the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

“It chose itself,” says Falter. He and Linda, who was to become his wife and partner in the facsimile business, went to see the original on their second date.

It was five years in production, as Falter used all of his printing knowledge — he comes from a family of printers, and studied at the London College of Printing before temporarily digressing into micro-computer software — to establish the best means of reproduction, to develop paper as close as possible to the original vellum, to ensure the binding equalled the magnificence of the pages within, as well as commissioning scholars to describe and assess the manuscript in a lavish companion volume.

Facsimile two was a four-year task. That was The Rothschild Miscellany, also commissioned around 1470, but in Italy rather than Spain. It combines more than 70 religious and secular works, including the Passover Haggadah and Siddur, and is described in the Facsimile Editions’ brochure as “the most lavish Hebrew illuminated manuscript in existence”.

Again, Michael Falter persuaded its owner — the Israel Museum in Jerusalem — to allow it to be photographed, the first stage in reproduction that uses computer-controlled laser scanners for the colour separations yet relies on ages-old craftsmanship to lay gold leaf to the same raised effect as in the original.

The Barcelona Haggadah rolledoff the presses after a mere two years, as the Falters consolidated their skills. It is, also, a smaller volume — 322 pages rather than 900-plus of its predecessors — though just as magnificent. Telling the tale of the Children of Israel’s flight from Egypt, it was produced in the middle of the 14th century, but by whom and for whom is unknown, and gained its “Barcelona” title from an apparent representation of the arms of the city in one of its illustrations.

The detective story of the manuscript’s travels from Spain to Bloomsbury is told in the companion volume by Diana Rowland-Smith, of the British Library’s Oriental department.

Inscriptions reveal that it was sold in Bologna in 1459 for “50 broad gold ducats”, a sum equivalent here at the period to the annual income of a skilled workman or the price of three good-quality horses. Bologna, Dr Rowland-Smith notes, “was then a major centre of Jewish banking and commerce”, where a good price would be paid for such a manuscript.

At the end of the 16th century, an Italian censor in the Reggio Emilia region — a haven for Jews banished from Bologna — signed the volume, and some decades later it was owned by a respected Jewish teacher in the same area. Its travels continued, to Livorno and Vienna at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th, and then on to Britain.

In October 1843, London book dealers Payne and Foss offered it to the British Museum for £52 10s, “which was a considerable sum at that time for a single manuscript”, and it was purchased for the nation the following month, in a package of 75 manuscripts whose total price was reduced from just over £1,300 to £840.

With the establishment of the separate British Library in 1973, the Barcelona Haggadah became part of its collection, “one of its most significant illuminated manuscripts because of its vivid illustrations of the life of Jews in 14th century Spain, providing an important source for illustrations of musicians and the musical instruments of the medieval period”, concludes Dr Rowland-Smith.

The most recent of all Facsimile Editions’ efforts has, however, a history which is rather more political than practical.

The spirit of reconciliation

The massive, magnificent Alba Bible was commissioned in 1422 as an attempt to counteract intense anti-Jewish feeling in Spain. Don Luis de Guzman, the high-ranking churchman who paid for its production, intended the translation to Castilian from Hebrew, with its accompanying commentary, to aid Christians to understand Jewish attitudes. But 70 years later, Spain expelled the Jews.

Five hundred years on, there has been a new commission, in a similar spirit of reconciliation, by Spanish industrialist Mauricio Hatchwell Toledano, the moving force behind the International Jewish Committee for Sepharad ’92. He asked the Falters to reproduce the Alba Bible — and on March 31, as King Juan Carlos publicly retracted the expulsion order, he and Israel’s President, Chaim Herzog, were presented with copies of the facsimile.

Falter’s Psalters

Rare Book Review – June 2004

Matthew Reisz discovers a firm which produces facsimiles down to the last wormhole

Michael Falter comes from the third generation of a printing family. In 1979, looking at the beautiful Hebrew manuscripts on display in the British Museum, he was irritated that they were always kept open on the same spread. This started him thinking that he would like to produce facsimile editions on the antique Columbian press he had inherited from his father. He consulted some scholars in Oxford and this led to an appointment with the late Ron May, Curator of Hebrew Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library. In the very same week, as it turned out, Falter met his future wife Linda, so he asked her, as a second date, whether she would like to accompany him. Thinking he had said ‘the Bodley Inn’, she warned him that she didn’t drink.

Once in Oxford, they got a chance to look at the Kennicott Bible (1476), the most lavishly illuminated of all Hebrew Bibles, to which only 30 scholars have been granted access over the last 200 years. It was then that they decided they wanted to create a facsimile which reproduced the character of this magnificent original as far as was humanly possible. At first the Bodleian refused permission – Oxford University Press was exploring a similar project but eventually concluded they did not have the resources to recreate a work where the artist sometimes used up to 24 colours per square inch. So, with no track record at all in this kind of publishing, the Falters stepped in where OUP had feared to tread. Their Kennicott Bible took around five-and-a-half years, but it immediately established Facsimile Editions, the company the Falters created and now run together, as one of the leading producers of facsimile illuminated manuscripts in the world.

With the North French Hebrew Miscellany (launched this spring at a price of $8,995), they have just completed their ninth book. Hebrew illuminated manuscripts are often very revealing about Judeo-Christian relations and artistic contacts as well as the social history of costume, decor and decoration. Each book published by Facsimile Editions comes with a companion volume of technical, historical and artistic commentary. The Parma Psalter (c.1280), once owned by Napoleon’s wife Marie-Louise, for example, is overflowing with images of both plausible and grotesque musical instruments, many of them being played by animals. Scholars in the Facsimile commentary draw out the psalter’s precious insights into mediaeval music-making. The published facsimiles range in size from the Meah Berachot, a tiny book of blessings and prayers measuring only 40x36mm, to the immense Alba Bible (1422-30), the first ever translation into Castilian and the only non-Hebrew text the Falters have worked on. It was commissioned for presentation to the King of Spain and President of Israel at a ceremony to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. Boxed up with its companion volume, it is around the size of a television.

In 1980, however, all this lay ahead. To start work on the Kennicott Bible, the Falters sent out specifications, a transparency of a single page and a photograph of the binding to specialist printers all over the world. They were unimpressed with the samples they got back, so they travelled around but still drew a blank. As a last resort, they started leafing through a book on their shelves called L’Italia Grafica (a 1967 yearbook for the Italian printing industry). One of the firms they contacted was an art book printer called Grafiche Milani. The managing director, Luigi Canton, was a passionate bibliophile and thought the Kennicott project could be the highlight of his career, so he sent a proof over, asked to come to London and arrived with a rough version of the binder as well.

With a skilled printer keen to come on board, the Falters turned to the problem of paper. All the originals that they have reproduced used parchment or foetal vellum and so they needed to find something which avoided the clinical feel of coated papers and possessed “the unique transparency, presence and feel” (if not the smell) of vellum. Signor Canton raised no fewer than 26 objections to a sample provided by one specialist paper mill (largely due to register issues involved in 11-colour printing in the humid Milan summers), but these were slowly overcome in collaboration with the mill. Each subsequent facsimile has required the creation of a completely new paper or an extensively modified version of an existing one.

Goldfingered

Another key challenge was the laying-on of gold. It is relatively easy to use pressure to apply gold foil to individual sheets, but this results in indentations on the reverse page instead of the flat or raised gilding found in manuscripts. An alternative method is to emboss gold onto two separate sheets and then glue them together, but this too never quite achieves the effect of the original. Luigi Canton was by now so committed to the project that he invented a special machine, in which sheets of gold foil were placed over pages already laid with glue in the right spots. The plan was for brushes to stick down the gold where it was required and rub it away from the remainder. Unfortunately, this proved a total disaster as the vacuum process sent flakes of gold flying round the room – all over people’s clothes, into their hair just about everywhere except where it was wanted. High-tech solutions had to be abandoned, and gold is now applied by hand onto raised surfaces in all the books.

The basic production process is now firmly established.  It starts with large-format transparencies of the original manuscript, which often require the curators to ‘relax’ the bindings and employ elaborate devices to protect the original sheets from changes in temperature and humidity. Grafiche Milani, who still work on all the Falters’ books, then create high-quality colour separations using sophisticated digital technology that also allows adjustments by hand. The Kennicott Bible used 11-colour printing, but later books have tended to rely on ‘only’ 9-colour printing. (Most art books and even some facsimiles are only machined four times.) Each stage of proofs is compared with the transparencies on a special daylight-calibrated lightbox to ensure consistency. Linda Falter reckons she walked 65km during the production of the Alba Bible just taking proofs from the press room to a nearby office where a large window gives natural light. Final proofs were then checked again several times against the original manuscripts in Jerusalem, London, Madrid, New York, Oxford and Parma. This iterative process of colour-correction takes so long that for some books the Falters have had to move to Milan for four months.

Hand-pricked

Even when printing finally starts, it can take up to 24 hours to get the correct balance and register on a single sheet. Books are usually published in slip-cases with their companion volumes, in editions of around 500 copies (although only 360 in the case of the North French Hebrew Miscellany), after which the presses are destroyed to protect the collector’s investment. Each copy is discreetly numbered by hand and given a hollow spine (unlike the originals) to avoid overstressing the binding. In every other respect they set out to be scrupulously exact facsimiles. Gilded pages are artificially aged. Every 15th-century wormhole is lovingly recreated. Where the original manuscripts have pricking in the margins – the Rothschild Miscellany (c.1479), which the Falters published in 1989, has around 92,000 holes in all – this too is reproduced folio by folio.

There are many easier ways to publish books, although not to get such splendid results, and only on one occasion did near-disaster occur. With bureaucracy delaying the commission, work on the Alba Bible had to be compressed into a mere 11 months. Books were finished only the night before they were due at the commemorative event and the Falters were anxious that foggy weather might delay their flight from Milan to Madrid and require a desperate drive half-way across Europe. When this problem was overcome, another arose. The copy to be presented to the King of Spain was to have an elaborate calligraphic dedication pasted into the flyleaf. Since the glue and the ink were both water-based, the ink ran and smudged horribly.

Fortunately Goldie Graham, Facsimile’s ever-helpful calligrapher, had other illuminated pages to hand and was able to create a substitute in time for the ceremony. The morning afterwards, however, she phoned them up in a panic: they must get the book back from the King of Spain at once! She was an inveterate doodler and had realised she’d left a sketch of two rabbits copulating in the corner of the dedicatory page! The Falters were about to scream, then breathed a sigh of relief – they had just remembered the date was 1 April.

Matthew Reisz is a freelance journalist and Editor of the Jewish Quarterly

Reichtum der Vergangenheit und Glanz der Gegenwart

Shalom – September 1990/Tischri 5751 – Vol. X

von Roland S. Süssmann

Die Kunstschätze der jüdischen Kultur, die in der ganzen Welt verstreut sind, in Museen, Nationalbibliotheken oder Privatsammlungen, verkörpern eine Quelle ständiger Bewunderung und Verklärung. Im Laufe der 80er Jahre fanden in Israel, in Europa und in den Vereinigten Staaten immer mehr Judaika-Versteigerungen statt, und die Preise erreichten oft astronomische Summen. Heute werden schöne Druck-Erzeugnisse und illuminierte Manuskripte immer seltener. Für die Auktionshäuser besteht die Schwierigkeit nicht mehr darin, Käufer zu finden, sondern genügend Material von hoher Qualität zusammenzubringen, um ein ständig anspruchsvoller werdendes Publikum anzuziehen. Ausserdem wachen die Sammler, die in den meisten Fällen keine finanziellen Probleme zu fürchten haben, eifersüchtig über ihren Besitz, welcher der weiteren Öffentlichkeit günstigstenfalls anlässlich einiger seltener Ausstellungen zugänglich sind.

Heute möchten wir Ihnen ein junges, traditionsverbundenes jüdisches Verlegerpaar vorstellen, das sich ganz besonders für sein jüdisches Kulturgut interessiert, LINDA und MICHAEL FALTER aus London. Das Paar Falter hat den Entschluss gefasst, seine Zeit und Kraft der „möglichst vollständigen und originalgetreuen” Reproduktion von herrlichen jüdischen illuminierten Manuskripten zu widmen, um auf diese Weise den Zugang und den Besitz dieser Kunstwerke vielen von uns zu ermöglichen. So haben sie 1985 die berühmte Kennicott Bible herausgebracht, wahrscheinlich die schönste illuminierte hebräische Bibel des spanischen Mittelalters. Der Schreiber Moses Ibn Zabara kopierte 1476 diese Bibel, sowie die Abhandlung über Grammatik des Rabbi David Kimchi, gemäss einem Auftrag des Isaak, Sohn des Don Solomo di Braga aus La Coruna im Nordosten Spaniens. Das Werk zählt 922 Seiten, wovon 238 Seiten auf wunderbare Weise illustriert sind. Die Illuminationen sind das Werk von Joseph Ihn Hayyim, der die Bibel in dem ihm eigenen Stil verziert hat. Seit dem Jahre 1872 befindet sich das Manuskript in der Bodleian Library in Oxford. Es trägt den Namen von Benjamin Kennicott (1718-1783); er war Engländer, Christ und Hebräischkundiger und lebte und arbeitete während seines ganzen Lebens in Oxford. Die Faksimile-Ausgabe der Kennicott Bibel wurde streng auf 550 Exemplare beschränkt.

1984, schon vor der Beendigung der Kennicott Bibel (deren Herstellung „nur” fünf Jahre gedauert hatte), beschlossen Linda und Michael Falter ein neues Abenteuer zu wagen. Sie entschieden sich dieses Mal für die Produktion eines gewichtigen Werkes, des Faksimiles eines unter dem Namen Rothschild Miscellany bekannten Buches. Es ist Eigentum des Israel Museums und besteht aus über 40 religiösen und weltlichen Schriften, die in einem Buch zusammengefasst sind. Unter den religiösen Werken befinden sich die Psalmen, die Sprüche, das Buch Hiob, die Haggadah von Pessach (Siehe SHALOM Nr. VIII) usw. Das Buch zählt insgesamt 948 Seiten, wobei 816 von ihnen prachtvoll illuminiert sind. Kein anderes, heute bekanntes jüdisches Buch weist die gleichen reichen Illuminationen auf wie das Rothschild Miscellany. Die Herstellung des Faksimiles machte übrigens bedeutende technologische Entwicklungen und Forschungsarbeiten erforderlich. Um eine möglichst vollendete und originalgetreue Reproduktion zu erhalten, haben sich die Herausgeber persönlich nach Italien begeben, um jede Produktionsetappe zu beaufsichtigen. Der Druck in sechs bis zwölf Farben, auf einem speziell für dieses Faksimile hergestellten Papier, und die Liebe zum Detail machen aus diesem Buch ein durch und durch aussergewöhnliches Werk, das all diejenigen erfreuen wird, die es erstehen werden. Auch hier wurde die Auflage auf 550 Exemplare begrenzt. Zur Zeit arbeiten Linda und Michael Falter an der Reproduktion der Barcelona Haggadah, dem Eigentum der British Library. Diese aus dem Mittelalter stammende spanische Haggadah umfasst 322 Seiten, davon 138 mit Illuminationen. Der für Ende 1990 vorgesehene Druck wird ebenfalls auf 550 Exemplare beschränkt sein. Dieses prachtvolle Manuskript befindet sich seit 1844 im Besitz des British Museums. und seine Produktion wird unter denselben Bedingungen und unter denselben Qualitätsanforderungen stattfinden wie die ersten beiden Werke der Faksimile Editions.

Welches waren die Gründe, die Sie veranlasst haben, dieses grosse „Abenteuer” in Angriff zu nehmen, d.h. die Produktion von Faksimiles jüdischer Werke in höchster Qualität ?

(Michael Falter). Das Gebiet des Drucks und der Druckereimaschinen stellte in meiner Familie eine Tradition dar, die vom Vater an den Sohn weitergegeben wurde, zunächst in Prag. dann in Wien und zuletzt in London. An einem Sonntag nachmittag habe ich mich ins British Museum begeben, in die King’s Library, wo ich herrliche hebräische Manuskripte mit Illuminationen sah. Dies gab mir sofort die Lust und die Idee. sie zu reproduzieren. Nach mehreren Anfragen wurde ich in der Bodleian Library in Oxford vorgestellt, wo ich die Kennicott Bibel bewundern konnte. In dieser Woche lernte ich auch diejenige kennen, die meine Frau werden sollte. Linda. und hei unserem zweiten Rendez-vous schlug ich ihr vor. gemeinsam nach Oxford zu fahren, um uns die Kennicott Bibel anzusehen. Wir beschlossen, das Wagnis der Produktion auf uns zu nehmen, und nach zwei Jahren voller Anfragen, Nachforschungen und Kontakten zu Druckereien usw. konnten wir einen Vertrag mit der Bodleian Library von Oxford abschliessen. Die ursprüngliche Idee und das anfängliche Hobby waren zu einem Beruf. zu einer harten und ernsthaften Arbeit geworden.

Trotz Ihrer Begeisterung und der Familientradition von Michael besassen Sie praktisch keine Erfahrung in diesem sehr speziellen Bereich. Und dennoch haben Sie beschlossen, es zu riskieren. Weshalb und wie kam es dazu ?

(Linda und Michael Falter). Die Hauptschwierigkeit lag darin, dass wir keinen Drucker finden konnten, der ausreichend Erfahrung und die geeignete Ausrüstung besass, um unsere Vorstellungen in die Tat umzusetzen. Wir hatten eine Reihe von Tests hei verschiedenen Druckereien durchführen lassen, die jedoch alle gleich ungeeignet und kostspielig waren. Eines Tages kontaktierten wir einen Drucker in Mailand, der uns kurze Zeit später mit seiner Tochter, die Englisch sprach, und mit einem bereits realisierten Exemplar seiner Arbeit in London aufsuchte. Da er sichtlich den Wunsch hegte und auch fähig schien, unseren Vorstellungen entsprechend zu produzieren, begaben wir uns zusammen nach Oxford, um ihm das Original zu zeigen. Als er es sah, veränderte sich seine Miene, und er sagte uns, er könne diese Arbeit nicht ausführen. Seiner Ansicht nach gab es keine Maschine, die gross genug gewesen wäre, um das Gold in dem von uns gewünschten Papierformat zu drucken. Dank seinen Beziehungen und seiner Erfahrung auf dem Gebiet der Druckmaschinen, fand Michael die Maschine, die wir aber letztlich nicht verwenden konnten, da das Gold von Hand auf jede Seite aufgetragen werden musste. Wir wollten, dass unsere Faksimiles so weit wie nur möglich dem Original glichen. nicht nur im Hinblick auf die Texte und die Dekorationen, sondern auch in bezug auf das Papier, das demjenigen des einzigen existierenden Beispiel von Oxford so nahe wie möglich kommen sollte. Dazu liessen wir ein spezielles Papier herstellen, das in seiner Undurchsichtigkeit und Dicke dem Original entsprach. Eines Tages. als das Papier dem Drucker übergeben werden sollte, teilte uns dieser mit, dass er nicht mehr mit uns arbeiten könnte, wenn wir auf der Beibehaltung dieses Papiers bestünden. Wir fragten ihn nach dem Grund. Da zeigte er uns eine Liste mit 26 Fehlern dieses Papiers. Wir gingen zum Hersteller, der sich einverstanden erklärte, die 26 Verbesserungen durchzuführen. Die Reproduktion des Textes an sich geschieht durch Fotografie. so dass Fehlerquellen ausgeschlossen werden. Der Text wird auf diese Weise originalgetreu wiedergegeben.

Denken Sie nicht, dass die Herstellung des Rothschild Miscellany aufgrund all dieser Erfahrungen einfacher gewesen wäre als diejenige der Kennicott Bibel. Es handelt sich um ein völlig unterschiedliches Vorgehen, sei es „nur” wegen des Alters des Papiers, wegen der grossen Anzahl von Illuminationen, der Reliefvergoldungen, die von Hand ausgeführt werden mussten, ohne den aussergewöhnlichen Einband mit den silbernen Verschlüssen zu erwähnen. Diese Produktion dauerte schliesslich nur vier Jahre anstelle von fünfeinhalb, wie dies für die Kennicott Bibel der Fall gewesen war.

Sie stellen wahrhaftig sehr schöne Produkte her. Aus welchen Gründen entschliesst sich eine Person, eines dieser Faksimiles zu kaufen, die trotz allem recht kostspielig sind ? Wie sieht Ihre Kundschaft aus, und wie erklären Sie sich das Phänomen, dass immer mehr Faksimiles hergestellt werden, was offensichtlich einer Nachfrage entspricht ?

Im vorliegenden Fall kommt der Kauf des Originals gar nicht in Frage, da es nie zum Verkauf angeboten werden wird. Das einzige Mittel für einen Bibliophilen, dem Original so nahe wie möglich zu kommen, ist der Besitz einer Reproduktion. Darüber hinaus stellen unsere Faksimiles keine Kunstwerke dar, die nur bewundert werden sollen, sondern Gegenstände, mit einem gewissen Wert natürlich, die zum Gebrauch bestimmt sind. Uns ist mehr als ein Fall bekannt, wo zum Beispiel am Freitag abend das Familienoberhaupt die Parascha der Woche mit seiner Familie studiert, indem er dafür die Kennicott Bibel verwendet. Unsere Kunden, zu denen Institutionen sowie Privatpersonen gehören, schreiben uns regelmässig und teilen uns ihre Gedanken mit zu ihrem Kauf und zu der Art und Weise, in der sie das Buch benützen. Ein Teil unserer Kundschaft besteht aus Personen, die eine Beziehung zu ihren Wurzeln herzustellen suchen. Andere kaufen unsere Werke, damit sie zum Familienbuch werden, zum Gegenstand, durch welchen sich die Familie mit dem Judentum identifiziert, und der vom Vater auf den Sohn übergehen wird. Es ist interessant festzustellen, dass einige unserer Kunden nicht über die Mittel verfügen, unsere Faksimiles zu erwerben, und dass sie dazu Schulden auf sich nehmen.

Was aber das Phänomen als solches angeht, denken wir, dass es sich auch durch die Tatsache erklären lässt, dass es nur sehr wenige herrliche hebräische Manuskripte auf dem Markt gibt, und dass diejenigen, die an Versteigerungen gehandelt werden, schwindelnde Preise erreichen. Die Herstellung von Faksimiles ist sehr ausgedehnt. Es gibt billige Verlage für die Allgemeinheit, die ihren Zweck erfüllen, und am anderen Extrem findet man sehr hochstehende Produkte, die anderen Bedürfnissen entsprechen. Wir sind jedoch die einzigen, die fast tausendseitige Bücher herstellen. Die meisten günstigeren Reproduktionen werden auf andere Art produziert und umfassen nur hundert bis hundertfünfzig Seiten.

Heute ist Ihr Ruf als Verleger für höchste Qualität gefestigt. Gibt es Leute, die mit Ihnen Kontakt aufnehmen, damit Sie ein Faksimile eines Manuskripts herstellen, das sich in ihrer Sammlung befindet ?

Wir werden nicht nur regelmässig von Sammlern angesprochen. die Manuskripte besitzen, sondern auch von Druckern, die zu uns kommen, um vielleicht unsere Faksimiles produzieren zu können, oder um unsere Techniken zu studieren. Vor kurzem wurden wir von einer der grössten Bibliotheken der Welt angefragt, ob wir ein Faksimile ein zweites Mal herstellen könnten, da die erste Version unbefriedigend ausgefallen war. Wir haben beschlossen, dieser Anfrage Folge zu leisten.

Während des Produktionsvorgangs ist es unvermeidlich, dass eine gewisse Reihe von Verlusten auftritt. Nach jüdischer Gesetzgebung ist es jedoch verboten, Schriften wegzuwerfen oder zu vernichten, die den Namen G’ttes tragen, vor allem wenn er voll ausgeschrieben ist. Wie haben Sie dieses Problem gelöst, das sich auch auf das Druckmaterial bezieht, das zerstört werden muss ?

Wir haben uns ans Beth Din in London gewandt, das uns die Erlaubnis gab, sowohl das Papier als auch das übrige Druckmaterial, das den Namen G’ttes trug, zu vernichten, nachdem wir während einigen Jahren tonnenweise Papier gelagert hatten.

Können Sie abschliessend von sich behaupten, dass Sie glückliche Verleger sind ?

Ja, denn auf unserem Gebiet, wie in vielen anderen, entspricht die Befriedigung der Anstrengung, die in unserem Fall sehr gross ist. Die meisten unserer Kunden sind unsere Freunde geworden, und wir geniessen das grosse Privileg, uns in einem Bereich zu betätigen, in dem sich unsere Geschichte, unsere Religion und unsere Philosophie auf schönste Weise ausdrücken: den illuminierten Manuskripten.

Richesses du passé et splendeurs du présent

Shalom – Septembre 1990/Tichri 5751 – Vol. X

par Roland S. Süssmann

Les trésors de l’art cultuel juif dispersés dans le monde entier, musées, bibliothèques nationales ou collections privées, constituent une source permanente d’admiration et de rêve. Au cours des années 1980, les ventes de Judaïca se sont multipliées en Israël, en Europe et aux Etats-Unis et les prix ont souvent atteint des sommets astronomiques. Aujourd’hui, les beaux imprimés et manuscrits enluminés se font de plus en plus rares. Pour les maisons de ventes aux enchères, la difficulté n’est plus de trouver des acheteurs, mais de réunir suffisamment de matériel de qualité pouvant attirer un public de plus en plus exigeant. Par ailleurs, les collectionneurs n’ayant le plus souvent pas de problèmes financiers gardent jalousement leurs biens qui, dans l’hypothèse la plus optimiste, ne sont accessibles au grand public que par le biais de quelques rares expositions.

Aujourd’hui, nous vous présentons un jeune couple d’éditeurs juif traditionaliste particulièrement intéressé par son héritage juif. LINDA et MICHAËL FALTER de Londres. Les Falter ont décidé de consacrer leur temps et leurs efforts à la reproduction «aussi complète et fidèle que possible» de magnifiques manuscrits enluminés afin d’en permettre l’accès et la possession à bon nombre d’entre nous. C’est ainsi qu’en 1985, ils ont produit la fameuse Kennicott Bible, probablement la plus belle bible hébraïque enluminée du Moyen-Âge espagnol. Le scribe Moses Ibn Zabara copia cette bible ainsi que le Traité grammatical de Rabbi David Kimchi en 1476, à la demande de Isaac, fils de Don Solo-mon di Braga originaire de La Coruna dans le nord-ouest de l’Espagne. L’oeuvre compte neuf cent vingt-deux pages, dont deux cent trente-huit sont illustrées de manière fabuleuse. Les enluminures sont l’oeuvre de Joseph Ibn Hayyim qui a décoré cette bible dans un style qui lui est propre. Depuis 1872, ce manuscrit se trouve à la Bodleian Library d’Oxford. Il porte le nom de Benjamin Kennicott (1718-1783), Anglais, chrétien et hébraïsant, qui vécut et travailla toute sa vie à Oxford. L’édition en fac-similé de la Kennicott Bible est strictement limitée à cinq cent cinquante exemplaires.

En 1984. avant même d’avoir terminé la Kennicott Bible (la réalisation de cette dernière ayant nécessité cinq ans «seulement» !), Linda et Michaël Falter décidèrent de se lancer dans une nouvelle aventure. Ils choisirent cette fois de produire une oeuvre considérable, le fac-similé d’un livre connu sous le nom de The Rothschild Miscellany. Propriété du Musée d’Israël, cet ouvrage est constitué de plus de quarante écrits religieux et laïques réunis en un seul livre. Parmi les oeuvres religieuses se trouvent les Psaumes, les Proverbes, le Livre de Job, la Haggadah de Pessah (Voir SHALOM Vol. VIII) etc. Le livre compte un total de neuf cent quarante-huit pages. dont huit cent seize sont magnifiquement enluminées. Aucun autre livre juif connu à ce jour n’égale la richesse d’enluminure du Rothschild Miscellany. La création de ce fac-similé a d’ailleurs requis d’importants développements et recherches technologiques. Afin d’obtenir une reproduction aussi parfaite et fidèle que possible, les éditeurs se rendirent eux-même en Italie pour surveiller chaque étape de la production. L’impression en six à douze couleurs, sur un papier spécialement fabriqué pour ce fac-similé, et le soin du détail en font une oeuvre tout à fait extraordinaire, et réjouiront tous ceux qui en feront l’acquisition. Là encore, le tirage est strictement limité à cinq cent cinquante exemplaires.

Actuellement, Linda et Michaël Falter travaillent sur la reproduction de la Barcelona Haggadah. Cette Haggadah espagnole datant du Moyen-Âge compte trois cent vingt-deux pages, dont cent trente-huit sont enluminées. Le tirage, prévu pour fin 1990, sera également limité à cinq cent cinquante exemplaires. Ce splendide manuscrit est la propriété du British Museum depuis 1844 et sa réalisation s’effectuera dans les mêmes conditions, et avec les mêmes exigences de qualité que les deux premières oeuvres des Facsimile Editions.

Afin de savoir dans quel esprit Michaël et Linda Falter travaillent et produisent leurs petites merveilles, nous les avons rencontrés sur leur lieu de travail à Londres.

Quelles sont les raisons qui vous ont poussés à vous lancer dans cette grande «aventure» qu’est la production de très grande qualité de fac-similés d’oeuvres juives ?

(Michaël Falier). Le domaine de l’impression et des machines d’imprimerie était une tradition de père en fils dans ma famille, tout d’abord à Prague, puis à Vienne et enfin à Londres. Un dimanche après-midi, je me suis rendu au British Museum. à la –King’s Library, où j’ai vu de magnifiques manuscrits hébraïques enluminés. Cela m’a immédiatement donné l’envie et l’idée de les reproduire. Après plusieurs démarches, je fus introduit auprès de la Bodleian Library d’Oxford où je pus admirer la Kennicott Bible. Cette semaine-là, je fis la connaissance de celle qui allait devenir mon épouse. Linda, et, lors de notre second rendez-vous, je lui ai proposé de nous rendre ensemble à Oxford voir la Kennicott Bible. Nous décidâmes de nous lancer dans cette production et. après deux ans de démarches, de recherches, de contacts avec les imprimeurs etc.. nous avons pu conclure un contrat avec la Bodleian Library d’Oxford. Ce qui au début n’était qu’une idée et un hobby devint une profession, un travail dur et sérieux.

Malgré votre enthousiasme et la tradition familiale de Michaël, vous n’aviez pratiquement aucune expérience dans ce domaine bien particulier. Vous avez malgré tout décidé de vous lancer. Pourquoi et comment ?

(Linda et Michaël Falter). La difficulté majeure résidait malgré tout dans le fait que nous n’avions pas trouvé d’imprimeur suffisamment expérimenté et équipé capable de réaliser ce que nous voulions. Nous avons fait faire un certain nombre de tests auprès de diverses imprimeries, tous aussi inadéquates et coûteux les uns que les autres. Un jour, nous avons contacté un imprimeur de Milan qui, peu après, est venu nous voir à Londres avec sa fille qui parlait anglais et un exemplaire de ce qu’il avait réalisé. Visiblement désireux et apparemment capable de produire ce que nous voulions faire, nous nous sommes rendus ensemble à Oxford afin de lui montrer l’ouvrage original. En le voyant, il changea de visage et nous dit qu’il ne pourrait pas réaliser ce travail. Selon lui, il n’existait aucune machine suffisamment grande pour imprimer l’or dans le format de papier que nous désirions. Grâce à ses connaissances et à son expérience dans le domaine des machines d’impression, Michaël trouva la machine que nous n’avons finalement pas pu utiliser, l’or ayant dû être appliqué à la main sur chaque page. Nous voulions que nos fac-similés ressemblent au maximum à l’oeuvre originale, non seulement du point de vue des textes et du graphisme, mais également que le papier se rapproche autant que possible de celui de l’exemplaire unique d’Oxford. Pour ce faire, nous avons fait confectionner un papier spécial ayant l’opacité et l’épaisseur de l’original. Un jour, alors qu’il allait être remis à l’imprimeur, ce dernier nous fit savoir que si nous désirions conserver ce papier, il ne pourrait continuer à travailler avec nous. Nous lui en avons demandé les raisons. Il nous a alors présenté une liste de vingt-six défauts de ce papier. Nous nous sommes rendus chez le producteur qui a accepté d’effectuer les vingt-six changements nécessaires. La reproduction du texte, quant à elle, se fait par photographie, ce qui élimine les fautes éventuelles. Le texte est ainsi retranscrit tel quel.

Ne croyez pas qu’en raison de toutes ces expériences, la production du Rothschild Miscellany fut plus aisée que celle de la Kennicott Bible. Il s’agit d’une entreprise totalement différente, ne serait-ce qu’en raison de l’âge du papier. du grand nombre d’enluminures, des dorures en relief que nous avons dû exécuter à la main, sans parler de la reliure fort particulière avec ses fermetures en argent etc. Cette production n’a duré finalement que quatre ans au lieu de cinq ans et demi comme ce fut le cas pour la Kennicott Bible.

Vous réalisez véritablement un très beau produit. Quelles sont les raisons qui décident une personne acheter l’un de ces fac-similés dont le prix est malgré tout assez élevé ? Quelle est votre clientèle et coin-ment expliquez-vous le phénomène de la multiplication des fac-similés qui, visiblement, répond à une demande ?

Dans le cas présent, il ne saurait être question d’acquérir l’original qui ne sera jamais mis en vente. Le seul moyen pour un bibliophile de s’approcher le plus possible de l’original est d’en posséder une reproduction. De plus, nos fac-similés ne constituent pas des oeuvres d’art destinées à être seulement admirées, mais des objets, certes de valeur, dont le but est d’être utilisés. Nous connaissons plus d’un cas où. par exemple, le vendredi soir le chef de famille étudie la Paracha de la semaine avec sa famille en utilisant la Kennicott Bible. Nos clients, qui sont aussi bien des institutions que des particuliers, nous écrivent régulièrement afin de nous communiquer leur sentiment au sujet de leur achat et la manière dont ils l’emploient. Une partie de notre clientèle est constituée de personnes qui cherchent à établir une relation avec leurs racines. D’autres achètent nos oeuvres afin qu’elles deviennent le livre de la famille, l’objet grâce auquel la famille s’identifie au judaïsme, et qui se transmettra de père en fils. Il est intéressant de noter que certains de nos clients n’ont pas les moyens d’acheter nos fac-similés et qu’ils s’endettent pour cela.

Quant au phénomène en tant que tel, nous pensons qu’il s’explique aussi par le fait qu’il existe très peu de splendides manuscrits hébraïques sur le marché et que ceux qui sont l’objet de ventes aux enchères atteignent des prix prohibitifs. La production des fac-similés est très large. Il existe des éditions grand public très bon marché qui ont leur rôle à jouer et à l’autre bout de la chaîne, nous trouvons des produits de très haut niveau qui répondent à d’autres besoins. Cependant. nous sommes les seuls à réaliser des livres de près de mille pages. La plupart des reproductions meilleur marché se font d’une autre manière et ne contiennent que cent ou cent cinquante pages.

Aujourd’hui, votre réputation d’éditeur de qualité de haut niveau est établie. Y a-t-il des gens qui vous contactent afin que vous produisiez un fac-similé d’un manuscrit qui se trouve dans leur collection ?

Non seulement nous sommes contactés régulièrement par des collectionneurs possédant des manuscrits, mais des imprimeurs viennent nous voir pour tenter de produire nos fac-similés ou étudier les techniques que nous utilisons. Récemment, l’une des plus grandes bibliothèques du monde nous a demandé de refaire un fac-similé dont la première réalisation était insatisfaisante. Nous avons décidé de donner suite à leur requête.

En cours de production, vous (levez inévitablement avoir un certain nombre de pertes. Or, d’après la législation juive, il est interdit de jeter et de détruire des écrits qui portent le nom divin, surtout s’il est écrit en toutes lettres. Comment avez-vous fait face à ce problème qui concerne également le matériel (l’impression devant être détruit. ?

Nous nous sommes adressés au Beth Din de Londres qui. après que nous ayons stocké plusieurs tonnes de papier pendant quelques années, nous a donné la permission de détruire aussi hien le papier que les autres matériaux d’impression portant le nom divin.

En conclusion, peut-on dire que vous êtes des éditeurs heureux ?

Oui, car dans notre domaine comme dans de nombreux autres, la satisfaction est à la mesure de l’effort qui, dans notre cas, est très important. La plupart de nos clients sont devenus des amis et nous avons le grand privilège d’exercer notre activité là où notre histoire, notre religion et notre philosophie sont exprimées de la plus belle manière qui soit: les manuscrits enluminés.

The Weekly Review – Leaves Of Old

Jewish Chronicle – March 11 2005

Simon Rocker meets London couple Linda and Michael Falter, who have mastered the art of reproducing rare Hebrew manuscripts

One afternoon, in 1979, Michael Falter set off to Bloomsbury in search of romance. “I was single and feeling a little sorry for myself because I didn’t have a girlfriend,” he recalled. “I wanted to meet a girl who was intelligent, so I thought I’d browse round the British Museum.”

What he found certainly ignited his passion — though not quite as he had intended. The object of beauty that caught his eye was not a woman, but a book. “I saw a showcase full of amazing Hebrew manuscripts. I could see only a couple of open pages behind the glass and on the way home, I reflected how I’d love to see much more.”

That glimpse of rare illuminated manuscripts was to prove the start of an enduring fascination that first became a hobby, then a career. Such priceless Judaica hardly ever comes on the market but for 25 years he and his wife Linda — whom he met the year after his museum visit — have enabled collectors to enjoy it by producing high-quality facsimiles. Their creations are not the kind of reprints of medieval hagadot you commonly see round a Seder table, but lavishly crafted replicas which, from their leather bindings to the antique look of the pages, could almost pass as originals.

On Tuesday evening the British Library will be hosting a reception to launch the Falters’ ninth reproduction, a facsimile of the late 13th-century masterpiece, the North French Hebrew Miscellany, which retails for a princely £4,695. This glorious compendium of Chumash, prayers, poems, other biblical texts — and sundry items including a riddle — which was compiled in 1280, is the British Library’s most prized Hebrew manuscript.

Its 84 texts range from the apocryphal Book of Tobit to laws on shechitah. But its true richness lies in its pictorial charm, the colourful Gothic illustrations that light up its 1,494 pages — cherubs, dragons, Leviathan and other fantastical creatures along with scenes from biblical life. A somewhat contemplative-looking Samson is about to finish off a lion, one knee pressing down on its back while his hands rip its jaws apart. A giant Abraham, as if on stilts, averts his gaze as he prepares to bring the blade down upon an elfin Isaac.

But these medieval splendours have a value beyond their artwork, for they are also testaments to survival. The persecutors of European Jews wreaked devastation on their libraries. Some 40 years before the Miscellany, for example, Louis IX of France consigned cartloads of Jewish books to the flames.

The more Michael Falter considered what he had seen in the museum case, the more he was intrigued by the idea of trying to reproduce it. A natural thought, perhaps, since both his grandfather, originally in Prague, Czechoslovakia and his father, in Vienna and London, were involved in the printing industry. “I went to the London College of Printing,” he said. “It was the only thing I ever wanted to do. My father had a business reconditioning old printing presses and he gave me a small press as a present when I was 12.”

On their second date, Michael took Linda on a visit to Oxford University’s Bodleian library. “She misheard me and thought I’d said the Bodley Inn,” he recalled. ‘But I don’t drink,’ she protested.”

Linda had grown up in Nottingham in a family more gastronomically Jewish than pious. “We ate our way through Judaism,” she said. “When I was very young, I was the only religious member of my family. I went every week to shul till I was 16… Then I met a Mexican and I lived away from England for 10 years.” Her travels took her to Switzerland, where she worked for the UN; Iran, where she ran a school; the USA, where she had a restaurant; and also to Israel, which she loved. When she met Michael, she was back in Britain helping her brother set up a skin-care business.

Captivated by the art of the manuscripts, she was also struck by a sense of immediate connection with the words. “When you open the Kennicott Bible and come across the Shema, it’s amazing that you can read something written down more than 500 years ago just as if it were in a printed book,” she said. “It links you with your roots.”

The upshot of their trip to Oxford was their first project, to make a facsimile of the Kennicott Bible, an illuminated 15th-century Tanach, so zealously guarded that the Bodleian has allowed only 30 scholars and historians to study it in two centuries. The Falters spared no effort in trying to match the original features. They had paper specially milled to replicate the appearance and feel of authentic vellum, they refined techniques to imitate the medieval gilders’ use of gold and silver leaf. They scoured Europe and even wrote to people in Japan before finding a suitably skilled printer, based in Milan.

Linda would maintain her long vigil by the presses while each of the 922 pages went into production. “Sometimes, it would take 24 hours to make ready one set of plates,” she said. “We wanted people to feel that what they had was something precious, as though it were an original manuscript.”

After five-and-a-half years’ work, their Kennicott Bible was ready in 1985. By that time, Michael had given up his job selling software and they had set up Facsimile Editions from their home in St John’s Wood.

Through their extraordinary attention to detail, they have since gained the trust of other institutions and collectors to win further commissions. The North French Hebrew Miscellany comes in a limited edition of 360 copies, accompanied by a companion volume explaining the background to the texts and the illustrations (edited by Jeremy Schonfield of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies and written by scholars such as University College London’s emeritus professor of Hebrew, Raphael Loewe).

“We’re the only people in the world who do what we do to this standard,” Michael said. Not surprisingly, the circle of potential buyers is small and highly specialised, mostly but not exclusively Jewish. On one occasion, Michael succeeded in selling a copy of the Kennicott Bible between the third and sixteenth floors in a hotel lift in Manhattan: on another, he sold one during a plane journey to a non-Jewish raincoat manufacturer from Hong Kong.

He remembers once being approached at the Jerusalem Book Fair by a man “with a crumpled shirt, rolled-up sleeves and sandals held together by string. He turned out to be one of the Manhattan Project scientists and ordered five copies of the Kennicott Bible.”

But the identity of one foreign customer was particularly surprising. “We got a postcard from a guy in Austria,” Michael said. “It turned out his father had been a high-ranking Nazi. His father had gone one way, but he went the other and now he spends his time studying Hebrew texts.”

For more on the work of Facsimile Editions, visit: www.facsimile-editions.com

Quest for perfection

Jewish Chronicle Magazine – September 28 1984

A love story with a difference, recounted by Patrice Chaplin

The Kennicott Bible, possibly the most beautiful Hebrew manuscript in existence, has been stored in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, since 1872, on show only to privileged scholars and historians. Now, thanks to the untiring efforts of a London couple, Michael and Linda Falter, this masterpiece will surface in the form of 500 expertly produced facsimile copies and so be available to the public for the first time.

The Bible was commissioned in the fifteenth century by Isaac, the son of Don Solomon di Braga, a prominent Jew of La Coruna in North-West Spain. The much acclaimed scribe Moses ibn Zabara was chosen to produce the exquisite script. He worked in an unusually harmonious fashion with his illustrator, Joseph ibn Hayyam, and the result of their collaboration is, to quote the Encyclopaedia Judaica, ‘The finest surviving example of Spanish Jewish Art . . . the culmination of the art of the Hebrew Bible.’

Joseph ibn Hayyam’s unique illuminations in rich, luxuriant colours made fabulous with superbly applied gold and silver have a Moorish, sometimes Gothic influence. Above all, they express the artist’s joyful originality, his love of fancy and splendour.

Produced at the very time Spain’s Jews were facing The Inquisition, the Bible is a last, undying reminder of a once glorious but lost heritage. From the beginning it was designed as a lavish work–238 of the 922 pages are illuminated, an unheard-of quantity.

It acquired its current name from Benjamin Kennicott, the English Christian Hebraist who presented it to the Radcliffe Library in 1771. It was transferred to the Bodleian Library in 1872 and today is considered one of Oxford’s greatest treasures.

As if by destiny, the Falters met each other and The Kennicott Bible more or less simultaneously. The following four years were spent devoted to the Bible’s reproduction—years not without defeat and times of hopelessness.

One Sunday afternoon in August 1980, Michael Falter had nothing to do. ‘I was a bachelor so I thought why not visit the British Museum. After all you never know who you might meet there.’ He didn’t quite meet Linda but he found a display of beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscripts and decided then that he would reproduce something exquisite.

An entrepreneurial printer’s engineer, Michael’s training was in business management though he had been born into the printing industry — both his father and grandfather had been printers. He’d spent two years at the London College of Printing, then set up his own business. ‘I’d buy up secondhand printing machines, completely take them apart, rebuild them and sell them with a guarantee as new. Over the years I’d acquired three antique printing presses —the original hand-operated ones from 1851 — and I wanted to put these to some use.’

Having come to that decision at the British Museum, Michael went to see David Patterson, the director of the Oxford Centre for Post Graduate Hebrew Studies, who said there was one manuscript above all worthy of reproduction and that was the Kennicott Bible.

‘He arranged for me to visit Ron May, the senior assistant librarian of Oriental Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, the following week. I went back to London feeling I was on the right track. I was. I met Linda.’

Linda was born in Nottingham and at sixteen travelled to Mexico, France and Switzerland. At 19 she went to work for the UN as a desk officer in Geneva. After that she worked in Teheran for the Representative of Iran and Afghanistan at the ILO. Then she taught English and French in an Iranian school. Following that she ran a restaurant in Los Angeles, ‘The House of Iran.’ Her next move was to be Tel Aviv where she wanted to live if her brother hadn’t needed help with his health club in Kensington.

An undeniably beautiful girl with radiant health and vivacity, Linda was surprisingly alone and lonely in London. ‘I was working in my brother’s health club from 9 am until 9 pm and I didn’t know a soul here. Eventually a friend of my brother’s introduced me to Michael. It was just at the time he was going to the Bodleian Library so I went with him and for the first time we saw the Kennicott Bible. I remember the day as so bright and lovely. You see, I’d been shut in the basement health club and hardly saw daylight.’

They fell in love, married and now have a young son, Gideon. That was the easy part. Bringing the Kennicott Bible out into the world from the library basement has been an exacting business, which obviously needed their combined skills.

How did they feel seeing the Kennicott Bible for the first time? Their procedure with the manuscript seemed very much like that of adopting a baby.

‘On the first visit we weren’t allowed to touch it,’ said Michael. ‘Ron May carried it up to his room and it really was awe-inspiring. It’s his love as well, of course.’

The Bodleian is not a public library and permission to enter is not easily obtained. The goodwill of Ron May and the support of David Patterson facilitated their next visits. But they had to convince the publications officer and the Board of Oxford University to give them a contract to produce the facsimile.

At what point did they decide to take it on?

Linda and Michael looked at each other and realised it had never been a decision. It was something they just had to do and they went right ahead and did it.

‘What struck me when I saw it the second time was this manuscript is five hundred years old and I’m sitting by it, as close as the original artist had been,’ said Michael. ‘It was an emotional experience to have so close to you this fabulous piece of history. So I wanted to bring to light something that would not normally be seen.’

‘No, we definitely didn’t decide to do it,’ emphasised Linda. ‘It decided for us. It was something beautiful that took you away from the nastiness of everyday, a lovely thing to be involved in. But the challenge of reproducing it without the skills that were available when it was originally executed was formidable.’

Michael pointed out that to find a manuscript of that age in such good condition was unusual. The secret was in the binding. It is one of only four known works — all Jewish —bound on all six sides so when closed it’s completely sealed and no air can get in.

A week after visiting the Bodleian the Falters set off across Europe to find a printer. In fact it took two and a half years to solve the printing problem. That was nothing compared with getting the gold right. Then there was the paper problem. And the box binding.

At the same time, the Oxford Committee would not grant them the contract. They felt it was too enormous an undertaking — the Falters had produced no other facsimile, apart from son Gideon! Their going ahead would exclude anyone else trying. Also The Oxford University Press itself was considering reproducing it.

‘They were extremely discouraging,’ said Michael. ‘In fact they discouraged us so much it took two years to get a contract out of them. What helped was that OUP decided the facsimile was beyond its capabilities. By then the committee were impressed with our knowledge and will to succeed.’

In Michael Falter’s opinion, facsimile producers almost always take the easy way out. They print on beautifully surfaced paper which will pick up every tiny detail and looks great but happens to be opaque.

‘This avoids the problem of the “showthrough.” Manuscripts are transparent, translucent not opaque. So we wanted a vellum indistinguishable from the original. But sometimes the air can make a book destroy itself and we’ve taken good care that this one won’t. After getting nowhere on the European trip we wrote to dozens of paper mills and eventually found a sort of greaseproof paper that was formerly used for wrapping bread. It turned out to be unstable. It had no grain to it. As soon as the atmosphere changed the paper changed. But the mill was interested so they eventually produced a paper to specification. It took a year, cost a fortune.

‘We’re printing this facsimile with nine colours. But you can’t just put a piece of paper in one end of the machine and it comes out with nine colours at the other. It goes in one colour at a time.

The sheet then has to dry, then it goes through again. And each time there’s an opportunity for an atmospheric change so the paper could distort and the next colour would be totally out of register. You could get it on the ninth colour and it would mean all that work has been wasted.

‘We’d seen hundreds of printers and it was beginning to look hopeless. Then one just turned up in London with his family from Italy. He said he had proofs of the paper, the transparency, the proofs of the binding even. At first I thought it was a friend having a joke. But Luigi was real. He came from Milan from a family of printers and the quality of his work was astounding. The colour was fantastic. The gold wasn’t great but it had promise. We took him and his family to the Bodleian and opened the manuscript and his face dropped. He said, “It’s impossible. There’s so much gold. We don’t have any machinery to reproduce that sort of thing.” So we drove back to London and not a word was spoken. He was very upset.’

And then the box binding, put out to top binderies in England, just could not be matched.

‘We got to a point,’ said Linda, ‘where we nearly gave up. On each one of the elements, the gold, the paper, the printing, the binding, we were near defeat.’

They financed the venture themselves and for two years on speculation because they still hadn’t been granted a contract from Oxford. They had to finance the tests for the English binderies. This took months and the costs were exorbitant. The results were disappointing.

‘Part of the problem was that nobody knew how they constructed the box in the first place.’

Once again the well-starred Italian printer found the solution. He simply went to a nearby binder in Milan who produced a marvellous binding just from a photograph.

‘No problems, no hassles,’ said Michael. ‘I wanted to do the binding here in England. If you can’t get a good one here, I thought, where on earth are you going to get it? We’ve got a fantastic tradition, after all. The Italian produced a Moroccan goatskin over wooden boards. There are geometric designs on the six sides, embossed with handcut brass dies. The original binding is damaged and even has a few holes. Well, we won’t produce those, they’re so ugly. We’re not going to take a pickaxe to the binding to make it look old. It will look like it did when produced originally. But the inside will look as it does today. The pages will have all the stains that life has given them. But of course the work is in particularly immaculate condition.’

The problem of the gold was resolved quite by coincidence. One of Michael’s contacts, a woman ‘well-known in the manuscript field’ in Milan, discussed the selling programme for the Bible. Depressed, Michael admitted his failure with the gold. By chance her husband had made special gold foil that was used in the printing of manuscripts.

‘It hadn’t been used much lately because no-one’s producing manuscripts any more. Well, it was terrific but had to be put on by hand. So now we have to hand gild each illustration — in other words, ten thousand pages by hand.’

The photography of the Kennicott Bible is now under way. The Bodleian stipulated that only their photographer be used and the manuscript is not allowed to leave the building.

‘The best way to photograph it is to disbind it so we can have the sheets flat but they won’t allow disbinding even though it had been disbound a hundred years ago,’ said Michael. ‘So we had to find a way to photograph inside the box. Luckily the Bodleian photographer, Charles Braybrooke, is very good. To avoid damaging the original he has to photograph through glass, but ordinary glass would cause discolouring. So we had optically white glass manufactured to capture the true colours. It was phenomenally expensive.’

Did the Falters expect to make a profit? Five hundred Bibles at 4,700 dollars each? Early subscribers get them for less. They said they’d be happy to break even.

‘We want to go on doing this,’ explained Linda. ‘Not just Hebrew manuscripts either. It’s part of our life now.’

Professor Bezalel Narkiss, an authority on Hebrew illuminated manuscripts, has written a commentary that will accompany the facsimile Bible in a separate volume.

‘It’s such a high-quality manuscript that we had to get the best person to write it,’ said Linda. The commentary tells the story of the Kennicott Bible, how it was created, its history, the importance of the illuminations. In the Falters’ view, it’s a wonderful piece of educational material in its own right.

Production of the Bibles will begin in December and the last one will be finished in May. The Falters will stay in Milan to supervise the printing. Every sheet will be brought to Oxford to be compared against the original.

The Bodleian and the Oxford Committee are delighted the Falters have been successful. And Dr Martin Brett, a medieval historian at Cambridge University, enthusiastically endorses the idea of the facsimile. ‘It will protect the actual manuscript. Some of these priceless works simply fall apart in your hands. You feel their bindings crack and it’s a very uneasy feeling. Now scholars won’t have to keep referring to the actual manuscript but to the facsimile instead. Four thousand dollars or so is not expensive at today’s publishing costs, especially as so much care has gone into this reproduction. The general public should be able to view a masterpiece but the trouble is people are destroying, while adoring. Expertly produced facsimiles solve that problem.’

Looking back, how did the Falters feel about the last four years?

Michael said, ‘I’m sure Linda and I were destined to be together. And I had to do the Bible. I spent twelve years in the printing industry and another five trying to get out of it. But if you’ve got printing ink in your blood it stays there.’

Linda said, ‘I think we were meant to be together and to do something together. I think my life up to meeting Michael was a preparation for that. A beautiful Hebrew Bible is a very strong thing to do. After all it will go on long after we’ve kicked the bucket.’

As for Gideon, at three months he’d already been to all the printing works in Italy. ‘He wouldn’t sleep during the night but he slept through all the din of the printing machines,’ said Linda. ‘The harsh smell of the chemicals didn’t worry him either.’ He can truly be said to be born into the printing trade, fourth generation.