JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

cial altar with a leaning ramp, the laver on its stand, vessels,
basins, pans, shovels, and forks. An earlier Bible of the same
type from Toledo (1277) is in the Biblioteca Palatina, Parma
(Ms. 2668).
The Farḥi Bible (Sassoon Collection, Ms. 368), one of the
richest Bibles of the 14th century, was both copied and decorated
by Elisha b. Abraham b. Benveniste b. Elisha, called Crescas
(b. 1325). It took him 17 years, from 1366 to 1382, to complete
the work which, as his colophon reveals, he undertook
for his own use. The manuscript was previously in the possession
of the Farḥi family of Damascus and Aleppo. The actual
biblical text is preceded by 192 fully decorated pages, 29 of
which are carpet pages and nine, full-page miniatures. Among
the illustrations are several pages of drawings of the implements.
The Bible became a substitute for the Temple and was
called Mikdashiyyah (“God’s Temple”). Thus, in Spanish Bibles
the implements symbolize the messianic hope for the rebuilding
of the Temple. A tree on a hill representing the *Mount of
Olives, where tradition states that the precursor of the Messiah
will appear, is included among the implements – a further
indication of the messianic intent of the illustration. Plans of
the Temple also exist in Spanish illumination. One early example
is attached to the First Ibn Merwas Bible of Toledo, 1306
(British Museum, Ms. Or. 2201). A large fragment, executed
by Joshua b. Abraham ibn Gaon in Soria (1306), is bound together
with the Second Kennicott Bible (Oxford, Bodleian Library,
Ms. Ken. 2). It contains all the implements and vessels
of the Second Temple arranged in ground-plan form, unlike
the more common random arrangement.
A few Bibles have other illustrations next to the carpet
pages. The Farḥi Bible has several, among which are the labyrinth
of the seven walls of Jericho and the tents of Jacob and
his wives. Two novel features appear in the carpet pages of
Spanish Bibles. One is the calendar page, according to the Jewish
year. Most of the calendars are circular, similar to the zodiac
form; some, such as that in the First Joshua Ibn Gaon Bible
of 1301 (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, cod. hèb. 21), consist
of movable disks. Contemporary calendars were also added,
usually beginning with the year in which the manuscript was
written. The second major novelty is the comparative tables of
the masorah. The different versions of the masorah of *Ben-
Asher and *Ben-Naphtali are written in columns framed by arcades
which resemble the early medieval canon tables. In some
manuscripts, the tradition of the fully arcaded pages persists
even though the text is different. The First Kennicott Bible, a
masterpiece of Spanish-Jewish art (Oxford, Bodleian Library,
Ms. Ken. 1), was copied, punctuated, and edited according to
the masorah by Moses Jacob ibn Zabara, and completed, as
his colophon shows, on July 24, 1476, in the Spanish town of
Corunna, for Isaac son of Don Solomon de Braga. The manuscript
was planned and fashioned in scope and decoration on
the model of the Cervera Bible (1300, Lisbon, Univ. Lib. Ms.
72). The illumination was done by Joseph *Ibn Ḥayyim, who
fashioned his colophon in zoo- and anthropomorphic letters,
similar to those of *Joseph ha-Ẓarefati, the artist of the Cervera
bible
Bible. Joseph ibn Ḥayyim however, added many new elements
to his work. These additions include 14 fully decorated carpet
pages, some illustrating the traditional array of implements
of the tabernacle. As in the Cervera Bible, a number of pages
are decorated with arcades which serve as frames for David
*Kimḥi’s grammatical compendium. Some of these arcades
have pictorial borders, such as an army of hares besieging a
wolf in a castle (fol. 443).
The Spanish artists, following the Oriental tradition, used
divisional signs for books and parashot although in a more
elaborate way and with some text illustrations. These can
be seen as early as 1260, in some parashot signs in the Damascus
Keter. The First Kennicott Bible has several such illustrations
(e.g., Phinehas brandishing his spear). Unlike Oriental
Bibles, the beginnings of books in some Spanish manuscripts
have a text illustration. The Kennicott Bible presents Jonah
and the whale (fol. 305). The Cervera Bible has several text
illustrations. The indicator for Parashat Ki-Tavo (Deut. 26)
displays a basket of fruit, illustrating the offerings of the
first fruit in the Temple; above it are an elephant and castle,
the royal arms of Castile. At the end of Exodus there is a
panel showing the menorah (fol. 60). A stag is painted alongside
Psalm 42 (fol. 326), and a lamenting grotesque decorates
Lamentations (fol. 371v). Zechariah (fol. 316v) is illustrated by
his vision of the two olive trees providing oil for the menorah.
Jonah (fol. 304) opens with a picture of a ship with sailors,
under which the prophet is being swallowed head first
by a whale – a not uncommon scene in illuminated Spanish
Bibles.
A similar picture of a sailing vessel is found at the beginning
of Jonah in a Bible written in Soria (1312) by Shem Tov
b. Abraham ibn Gaon, probably a brother of Joshua ibn Gaon
(Sassoon Collection, Ms. 82). Further resemblances between
the Shem Tov Bible and the Cervera Bible, such as the grammatical
and masoretic treatises written within columns and
the crouching lions at the bases of arcades, suggest that they
are based on a common model. These two manuscripts are
also related in artistic style. The numerous text illustrations
in the margins and between the columns of the First Joshua
Ibn Gaon Bible (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale cod. hèb. 20)
include Noah’s ark (fol. 13), the dove holding an olive branch
(fol. 14), Hagar’s water jug (fol. 20), Abraham’s sacrificial knife
(fol. 20v), the goblet of Pharaoh’s butler (fol. 133), David’s sling
with Goliath’s sword, and the bear and lion killed by David
(fol. 170). Of all the 15th-century Bibles, the First Kennicott
Bible has the largest number of text illustrations. At the opening
of the Book of Jonah (fol. 305), the traditional picture of
the prophet being swallowed head first by a whale, beneath a
decorated ship, is depicted in a way similar to that in the Cervera
Bible. There is also an illustration of King David at the
beginning of II Samuel (fol 185) in the Kennicott Bible. Floral
and geometric shapes composed of micrographic masorah
decorate the margins of some text pages. As in the Oriental
Bibles, the two songs of Moses are often written in a special
form and sometimes have a frame decorated with colors or
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 677