A Woman Drawing Water from a Well

Artist Unknown

1619–1624

Manuscript page with illustration of woman drawing water from a well as another individual stands behind her with a pitcher of water on head, and Hebrew text above.
Tooltip info icon
Sifre ‘evronot—manuals for calculating the Jewish calendar, including leap years and holidays—were a popular genre of Ashkenazic illustrated manuscripts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, although there is evidence for them from the sixteenth century. Some include illustrations on themes from Jewish tradition, such as bible scenes, or references to the zodiac. This calendar manual was written in Hessen, Germany. The illustration depicts a woman drawing a bucket of water from what appears to be a public well decorated with an animal head. A servant stands nearby, carrying another container.

Credits

The National Library of Israel, Jerusalem, Ms. Heb. 8°3247.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

Engage with this Source
Restricted
Some content is unavailable to non-members, please log in or sign up for free for full access.

Related Guide

Early Modern Jewish Languages

1500–1750

As Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews migrated eastward, Yiddish and Ladino emerged as distinct languages. Both languages developed literary traditions, as print became more widespread.

Print of seated person in large hat and robes facing to the left smoking a very long pipe.
Tooltip info icon

Related Guide

Early Modern Literature and the Arts

1500–1750

Jewish literary creativity flourished in the early modern period, dominated by Hebrew poetry that blended religious themes with Renaissance forms.

You may also like

Briyo and Zimro

Beri‘ah ve-Zimrah

This 16th-century Yiddish epic is a dramatic love story set within a legendary Jewish kingdom with international folk motifs.

View Source
Printed page of Yiddish text framed by woodcut of figures on curved archway and columns framing text.
Tooltip info icon

Book of Cows

Ku-bukh

The anonymous 16th-century collection of thirty-five illustrated animal fables in Yiddish offers moral lessons and social commentary.

View Source
Single manuscript page with Yiddish text.
Tooltip info icon

Mayse-bukh (Book of Stories)

The Mayse-bukh (Book of Stories), a collection of more than two hundred and fifty stories in Yiddish, was popular among Jews in Western and Eastern Europe from the sixteenth to the nineteenth…
View Source