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Book Cover
E-book
Author Kaufmann, Ingrid M., author

Title Visual aspects of scribal culture in Ashkenaz : shaping the Small Book of Commandments (SeMaK) / Ingrid M Kaufmann
Published Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter, [2019]
Leck : CPI Books
©2019

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Description 1 online resource (x, 229 pages) : illustrations (chiefly color), facsimiles
Series Studia Judaica. Forschungen zur Wissenschaft des Judentums, 0585-5306 ; Band 103
Studia Judaica (Walter de Gruyter & Co.) ; Bd. 103.
Contents 1. Introduction -- 2. The historical context -- 3. The SeMaK as a book -- 4. The manuscripts in their entirety -- 5. The scribes -- 6. Five manuscripts in detail -- 7. Conclusion
Summary The medieval Ashkenazi manuscripts of the Small Book of Commandments (Sefer Mitzvot Katan, or 'SeMaK' for short), which was written by Isaac of Corbeil, attest a scribal culture in which rabbinical knowledge and piety were combined with creative freedom in manuscript design. This study is concerned with the creation, composition and circulation of manuscripts of the SeMaK and concentrates on the book as an artefact. The focus of the author's attention is the manuscripts' material nature, their artistic embellishment and the personal touches that scribes added to them. With the act of writing a text and decorating a SeMaK manuscript, they 'appropriated' the text, so to speak, giving it a character of its very own. They drew on a visual language in the process - or rather, on visual languages, which occupy a special place between pure writing culture and pure painting culture. It was in this area 'in between' the two that spontaneous touches arose, ranging from changes in the physical arrangement of the text (mise-en-page) to drawings and doodles added in the margins. An examination of paratextual elements broadens the reader's knowledge about Jewish scribal culture and grants insights into medieval book art, material culture and Judeo-Christian co-existence in the Middle Ages as well as throwing some light on Jewish values, ideals and eschatological hopes
Notes "Based on a lightly revised version of my PhD thesis, 'Neben dem Text: Kommentierung, Dekoration, Kritzelei - Der SeMaK (Das kleine Buch der Gebote) als Zeugnis der visuellen Schreiberkultur in Ashkenaz' ..."--Page V
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes In English
Print version record
Subject Ashkenazim.
Judaism -- History -- Medieval and early modern period, 425-1789.
LITERARY CRITICISM -- Jewish.
Ashkenazim
Judaism -- Medieval and early modern period
Aschkenasim
Jüdische Kunst
Handschrift
Buchmalerei
Ästhetik
Illuminierte Handschrift
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9783110573626
3110573628
9783110574418
3110574411