Scroll of the Book of Esther
Andrea Marelli
1573
Credits
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.
You may also like
Sha‘ar ha-mitsvot (The Gate of Commandments)
The Right Question Is Theological
Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number
Engage with this Source
Like Torah scrolls, the scroll of the biblical book of Esther, read ritually in the synagogue on the holiday of Purim, must be completely unadorned. Only in the sixteenth century, for reasons unknown, did a tradition of decorating the scroll begin to develop, in Italy; this is one of only four extant decorated Esther scrolls from that century. Handwritten on thick parchment, it features printed (and hand-colored) borders designed by Andrea Marelli, an Italian book illustrator and printmaker who was active in Rome and Sienna between 1567 and 1572. The borders, originally created to frame each of the letters of the alphabet in a set designed by an Italian calligrapher, have been repurposed here to provide a frame for the biblical text.