A Highly Important Decorated Esther Scroll, Venice: 1564 Scribe: Estellina daughter of Menahem

Ink and gouache on parchment (14 x 74 7/8 in.; 355 x 1900 mm). Text written in an Italian square Hebrew script arranged in 21 columns of 24 lines on four membranes. Opening membrane with minor perforations not affecting text or illustrations; some flaking; reinforced with later parchment. Few very light stains. Upper and lower edges worn. Mounted on a turned wooden roller.

Cohen, Mintz and Schrijver. A Journey through Jewish Worlds. Highlights from the Braginsky Collection of Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books, Amsterdam: 2009, pp. 226-27; Michael Riegler and Judith R. Baskin, " "May the Writer be Strong": Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts Copied by and for Women", in Nashim, 16 2008, pp. 9-28; Ross Singer, "Women and Writing the Megillah" in Edah Journal, 4:2, 2004

The earliest complete decorated Esther Scroll

The only known Esther Scroll to have been written by a woman in the pre-modern era.

The present scroll, the very first example of a complete decorated megillah is the precursor to an entire genre whose popularity would expand in the ensuing centuries. It is well known that the creation of decorated Esther scrolls grew in scope in Italy and Amsterdam in the early seventeenth century and then flourished to even greater heights in the 18^th and 19^th century in Jewish communities around the world.

Among the hundreds of decorated Hebrew manuscripts dating back to the Middle Ages, there is surprisingly, not a single complete decorated Esther Scroll which predates the 16th century. Despite the acceptance on the part of rabbinic authorities of decorated Esther Scrolls, only two small decorated fragments of what appears to have been a 15th century megillah from Spain leave us with the impression that this rich form of Jewish art must have existed at an earlier date.

The present scroll is extraordinary on several accounts, first and foremost in its pride of place as the earliest complete decorated megillah. As attested to by the dated colophon at the conclusion of the text, the scroll was completed on Tuesday, 3 Adar, 5324 [= 15 February, 1564] in the city of Venice. The colophon however reveals an even more remarkable feature—the individual who wrote this scroll was a woman, Estellina daughter of the Katzin Menahem, son of the Rosh Katzin Jekutiel. Estellina was clearly a member of a wealthy and eminent family indicated not only by the titles accorded to her father and grandfather (both Katzin and Rosh Katzin denote distinguished official positions within the Jewish community) but also by the presence of a coat of arms painted onto the scroll directly after her colophon.  Prominently displayed in an elaborate gold frame festooned with flowing ribbons and occupying an entire column, the coat of arms consists of a gold crown above another image that is difficult to decipher, as the paint has been abraded. Traditional rabbinic authorities debated whether or not women were eligible to write megillot. Several prominent Rabbis permitted it reasoning that just as women are obligated in the commandment to hear the megillah read, likewise they are also eligible to write an Esther scroll.

The text, written within a richly colored arcade, is preceded by the blessings recited before reading the megillah and bordered on either side by caryatids, sculpted female figures forming columns, supporting urns and oil lamps on their heads. Framing the 6th and 12th panels are a satyr and satyress, male and female figures with human heads and torsos and the lower body of a goat. Above the columns of text are fruit-laden bowers of green foliage ornamented with a variety of human and animal visages. All the images are luxuriously highlighted with shell gold.

No other completely hand-decorated scroll exists from the 16^th century. Only one other, later, decorated scroll is known from the 16^th century; it features an engraved border produced in Rome circa 1570 and is extant in 3 copies.

The unique characteristics of the present scroll, both in terms of its preeminent status as the earliest complete decorated Esther Scroll, and as the only known pre-modern exemplar written and decorated by a woman, clearly position it as one of the most important and desirable megillot in the world today.