Scroll of the Book of Esther

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.