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A Rare and Important Early Ashkenazic Torah Fragment [ca. 1270]
Estimate
15,000 - 20,000 USD
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Description
- parchment, ink
Five sheets (26 ½ x 158 in.; 675 x 4020 mm). Written in brown ink on parchment in a distinctive 13th century Ashkenazic square Hebrew STAM script. Five columns per sheet, except the last sheet, with four columns, the final column (containing the Song at the Sea) being essentially a double-width column. Blind ruled in hardpont; 48 lines per column; spaces between verses consistent with medieval Ashkenazic practice. Height of parchment: (26.38 in.; 675 mm); top margin: (2.17 in.; 55 mm); bottom margin:(2.95 in.; 75 mm); text: (21.26 in.; 54 0 mm); width of column (text): 13 cm(5.12 inches). Text: Genesis 47:14 – Exodus 15:27.Sheets sewn with gidin (animal sinew); sewing between sheets 2-3 and 4-5 reinforced on verso with glued parchment patches. Minor tears at margins; sheet 5 with a small natural hole in bottom margin as well as a minor loss of parchment at lower corner, neither affecting any text; a single word cut out in sheet 4, column 3 (7 lines from bottom,) probably reflects the presence of a patch on verso, since lost; corresponding weakness along the same line from biting ink.
Catalogue Note
a rare early witness to ashkenazic scribal tradition; the earliest known example of a torah scroll with "vavei ha-'amudim"
This is the earliest known example of a Torah scroll with the layout of vavei ha‘amudim – a scribal tradition of writing the Torah in which the biblical text is painstakingly arranged so that each of the hundreds of text columns begins with the letter vav. This arrangement of biblical text was exceedingly rare in the medieval period, although today it is much more common.
It is, in nearly every case, virtually impossible to identify the scribe who produced a particular Torah Scroll, especially one which is more than 700 years old. Incredibly however, we may have an indirect hint to the identity of our scribe based on an extraordinary conflation of textual clues. Several leading Ashkenazic rabbinic authorities of the second half of the 13th century including the Maharam of Rothenberg (ca. 1215–1293), inveighed against the writing of Torah scrolls in this fashion (vavei ha’amudim), because it was felt that the average scribe would be unable to produce an aesthetically pleasing scroll with such a layout. Given the stature of the Maharam in 13th century Ashkenaz, the notion that his ruling would be ignored, would be inconceivable. We are fortunate however to have the testimony of the Maharam’s pupil, Rabbi Meir ben Yekutiel ha-Kohen (d. 1298), author of Hagahot Maimuniyot, who notes, in the name of his teacher, that there was in fact one such expert scribe, a certain Leontin of Mulhausen, who was able to produce a Torah Scroll in which the vavei ha’amudim configuration was executed in an aesthetically pleasing manner (see Hagahot Maimuniyot, Hilkhot Sefer Torah 7:9, note 7). Though there is no way to know for certain, we may nevertheless speculate that the present Torah Scroll, may in fact be the work of Leontin of Mulhasen.
Interestingly, a number of scribes in the 14th century produced codices (rather than scrolls) with such a layout (some with 48 lines per column, and some with 60 lines per column). However, the present lot represents the earliest example of a Torah scroll with such a layout.
A radiocarbon dating report is available upon request as is a complete report detailing the specific scribal characteristics of this scroll by Prof. Jordan Penkower of Bar-Ilan University. Sotheby's is grateful to Prof. Penkower for providing information which aided in the cataloging of this lot.
LITERATURE:
J. S. Penkower, “A Sheet of Parchment from a 10th or 11th Century Torah Scroll: Determining its Type among Four Traditions (Oriental, Sefardi, Ashkenazi, Yemenite)”, Textus 21 (2002), pp. 235-264.; J. Peretz, The Pentateuch in Medieval Ashkenazi Manuscripts, Tikkunei Soferim and Torah Scrolls: Text, Open and Closed Sections and the Layout of the Songs, PhD thesis, Bar-Ilan University: Ramat-Gan 2008, pp. 249-282 (Heb.).; ’Okhlah Ve’okhlah, ed. S. Frensdorff (=MS Paris 148),Hanover 1864, reprint Tel-Aviv 1969.
This is the earliest known example of a Torah scroll with the layout of vavei ha‘amudim – a scribal tradition of writing the Torah in which the biblical text is painstakingly arranged so that each of the hundreds of text columns begins with the letter vav. This arrangement of biblical text was exceedingly rare in the medieval period, although today it is much more common.
It is, in nearly every case, virtually impossible to identify the scribe who produced a particular Torah Scroll, especially one which is more than 700 years old. Incredibly however, we may have an indirect hint to the identity of our scribe based on an extraordinary conflation of textual clues. Several leading Ashkenazic rabbinic authorities of the second half of the 13th century including the Maharam of Rothenberg (ca. 1215–1293), inveighed against the writing of Torah scrolls in this fashion (vavei ha’amudim), because it was felt that the average scribe would be unable to produce an aesthetically pleasing scroll with such a layout. Given the stature of the Maharam in 13th century Ashkenaz, the notion that his ruling would be ignored, would be inconceivable. We are fortunate however to have the testimony of the Maharam’s pupil, Rabbi Meir ben Yekutiel ha-Kohen (d. 1298), author of Hagahot Maimuniyot, who notes, in the name of his teacher, that there was in fact one such expert scribe, a certain Leontin of Mulhausen, who was able to produce a Torah Scroll in which the vavei ha’amudim configuration was executed in an aesthetically pleasing manner (see Hagahot Maimuniyot, Hilkhot Sefer Torah 7:9, note 7). Though there is no way to know for certain, we may nevertheless speculate that the present Torah Scroll, may in fact be the work of Leontin of Mulhasen.
Interestingly, a number of scribes in the 14th century produced codices (rather than scrolls) with such a layout (some with 48 lines per column, and some with 60 lines per column). However, the present lot represents the earliest example of a Torah scroll with such a layout.
A radiocarbon dating report is available upon request as is a complete report detailing the specific scribal characteristics of this scroll by Prof. Jordan Penkower of Bar-Ilan University. Sotheby's is grateful to Prof. Penkower for providing information which aided in the cataloging of this lot.
LITERATURE:
J. S. Penkower, “A Sheet of Parchment from a 10th or 11th Century Torah Scroll: Determining its Type among Four Traditions (Oriental, Sefardi, Ashkenazi, Yemenite)”, Textus 21 (2002), pp. 235-264.; J. Peretz, The Pentateuch in Medieval Ashkenazi Manuscripts, Tikkunei Soferim and Torah Scrolls: Text, Open and Closed Sections and the Layout of the Songs, PhD thesis, Bar-Ilan University: Ramat-Gan 2008, pp. 249-282 (Heb.).; ’Okhlah Ve’okhlah, ed. S. Frensdorff (=MS Paris 148),Hanover 1864, reprint Tel-Aviv 1969.