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patterned masoretic micrography. The carpet pages are composed
of repeated geometric designs or a central motif with
ornamented frame. In several manuscripts, such as the Cairo
Karaite Latter Prophets, there are two geometrical, patterned
carpet pages which have an additional palmette motif on the
outer border. The origin of such carpet pages is unknown, but
similar types can be found in the eighth-century Christian sacred
books of Hiberno-Saxon and Northumbrian origin, such
as the Lindisfarne Gospels. In Hebrew Bibles they are directly
related to the traditional opening and closing pages of Koran
manuscripts of the same period.
The other type of fully decorated pages in Oriental Bibles
incorporates floral and geometric motifs outlined in micrography.
The text of the minute script is usually the *masorah
magna. Some masoretic pages have a portal-like motif, although
most have round, square, or rhomboid shapes. Floral
and geometric elements sometimes frame dedicatory and colophon
pages. In addition to the carpet pages, the Pentateuch
manuscript dated 929 C.E. has two pages with a display or
plan of the sacred implements of the tabernacle and Temple.
These consist of the seven-branched candelabrum, shovels, the
table of shewbread, jars, basins, Aaron’s flowering staff, and a
highly stylized triple arcade, perhaps symbolizing the facade
of the Temple, as well as a stylized Ark of the Covenant. The
exposition of the menorah, the Ark, the jar of manna, and
the triple-gate facade of the Temple probably originated in
late Hellenistic tradition. All these elements appear on minor
Jewish art objects of the first to the third centuries, such as
clay oil lamps, painted gold-leaf glasses, and coins, as well as
in monumental wall-painting in synagogues and catacombs
and in later synagogal floor motifs.
Within the text of the Oriental Bibles, traditionally written
in three columns, divisional motifs demarcate the end of
books, portions (parashot), and verses. At the end of books,
there is usually an ornamental frame containing the number of
verses in the book. Sometimes, these frames were extended to
decorative panels, like the Sūra headings in the Koran. Decorated
roundels or other motifs, occasionally with mnemonic
devices, mark the different parashot as well as the chapters of
the Psalms. The roundels resemble the ʿashira (division into
verses), and the sajdah (pause for prostration) signs in contemporary
Korans. Other sections contain similar decorations.
Most frequent is a paisley motif, derived from the Arabic letter
ha, which resembles the khamise (five-verse section) notation
in Korans. The Songs of Moses (Ex. 15; Deut. 32) are traditionally
written in a distinct verse form, sometimes framed
by decorative geometric and floral bands. An example is an
11th-century Persian Bible in the British Museum (Or. Ms.
1467, fols. 117v–118v). Of the few existing examples of Oriental
Bibles that contain text illustrations, two are 11th-century
Persian Pentateuchs. One has pictures of sacred vessels between
the text columns of the page, illustrating the text’s description
of the princes’ gifts to the tabernacle in the desert
(Num. 7:1; Brit. Mus., Or. Ms. 1467, fols. 43–43v). The other
has an illustration of the two tablets of the law inscribed with
the opening words of each Commandment, next to the text
of the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:2–17; Brit. Mus., Or. Ms.
2363, fol. 73v). Portions of the Bible, especially the Pentateuch,
intended for educational use were also decorated in the same
manner. One example is the Jerusalem Shelaḥ Lekha portion
of 1106 C.E. Oriental Bibles of the 12th and 13th centuries carry
on the tradition of carpet pages, decorated micrography, and
divisional signs.
SPANISH. The illumination of Spanish Bibles is derived from
the Oriental ones. Like them, they contain carpet pages, illustrations
of the Temple implements, divisional signs for books,
portions, and verses, and patterned masorah. Spanish Bibles
also contain innovations, mainly in the comparative masoretic
tables. No illuminated Bible from the Islamic “Golden Age”
in Spain has survived. The extant Bibles of Christian Spain
suggest a link between them and the early Oriental Bibles because
of their similar plan and iconography. The carpet pages
of 13th- and 14th-century Spanish Bibles are placed mainly at
the beginning and in the major divisions of the Bibles. These
carpet pages combine painted motifs with figurated masorah
and are framed by verses in monumental scripts.
The earliest recognizable Spanish school of Bible illustration
developed in Castile during the second half of the 13th
century. Examples of illuminated Bibles from this school indicate
an Oriental origin in both the type of decoration and
the main floral, geometric, and micrographic motifs. The carpet
page from the Damascus Keter, in the National and University
Library in Jerusalem, a Bible copied in Burgos in 1260
by Menahem b. Abraham ibn Malik, is a good example of the
Spanish style. The Oriental flavor of the foliage scroll, outlined
by micrography, is somewhat subdued by the Western touch
of a burnished gold filling and magenta-brown background.
Other Bibles from Castile, such as the 14th-century codex from
Cervera, near Toledo (Lisbon, National Library, Ms. 72) reveal
more Westernized taste, and were probably influenced by the
southern French schools of illumination; Provence should be
regarded both culturally and socially as part of the northern
Spanish schools.
The most common illustrations of the Spanish Bibles
are the implements of the Temple. They are usually shown in
a double-page spread in front of the manuscript, next to the
carpet pages, rather than in the form of a plan of the Temple
or tabernacle. A Bible copied in Perpignan in 1299 (Paris,
Bibliothèque Nationale, cod. hèb. 7) contains one of the earliest
full-page expositions of the implements of the tabernacle.
The implements are arranged arbitrarily within frames. The
first page (fol. 12v) shows the seven-branched menorah and
its tongs and fire pans, with two step-like stones on either side
of the base, the jar of manna, the staff of Moses and Aaron’s
flowering rod, the Ark with the tablets of the law deposited
in it, the two winged cherubim over the Ark-cover, and the
table with the shewbread – two rows of six loaves – above
which are two incense ladles. On the second page (fol. 13) are
the gold incense altar, silver trumpets, the horn, the sacrifi-
676 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3