A Fine Illustrated Esther Scroll, Amsterdam: ca. 1701

1 scroll (6 7/8 x 70 in.: 174 x 1778 mm). Text written in brown ink in square Hebrew script arranged in 16 columns with 24 lines to a column, on 4 parchment membranes, stitched together, with elaborately illustrated engraved borders, in black ink, Few scattered light stains, typical wear, with some flaking of ink. Housed in a modern brown leather gilt-tooled cylinder case.

Cohen, Mintz and Schrijver. A Journey through Jewish Worlds. Highlights from the Braginsky Collection of Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books, Amsterdam: 2009, pp. 234-237.

The finely engraved border on this eighteenth century Dutch scroll reflects the innovative technique of integrating printing technology with the age-old scribal tradition of writing by hand the entire the text of the biblical book of Esther. Detailed narrative scenes of the Purim story unfold along the lower border and a series of four elaborate landscapes are presented in cartouches above the text columns. The decorated opening panel contains the benedictions recited before the reading of the scroll, surrounded by a series of illustrations including Esther and Ahasuerus seated on a double throne, the hanging of Bigthan and Teresh, Mordecai refusing to bow down to Haman, Haman leading Mordecai through the streets of Shushan on the king's horse, the hanging of Haman and his ten sons, and Esther and Mordecai writing the Purim letter. 

This megillah belongs to a group of Esther scrolls produced in Amsterdam that share a similar border of engraved biblical scenes beneath the text column. They differ in that some scrolls feature engraved portraits above the text columns and others depict landscape scenes.  The illustrations of the present scroll, match exactly those found on the earliest known example of this group of megillot, dated 1701.