Seder Pirkei Shirah … ve-Sefer Tehillim … ve-Seder Tefilat Yom Kippur Katan, Scribe: Meshullam Zimmel ben Moses of Polna [Vienna:] 1721

114 leaves (7 3/4 in.; 195 x 138 mm). Written in black ink on parchment, blind-ruled, 18-31 lines, in several sizes of an extremely fine calligraphic square Ashkenazi Hebrew script, with nikud (vowel points), headings in larger script. Sixteen very large decorated head- and tail- pieces, up to half-page in size (as on fols. 10r, 25r, 40r; etc.) and including pictures of King David, animals, birds, dragons, cherubim, and many other designs within elaborate rococo and classical cartouches, seventy-six small miniatures ranging in size from 28 x 27 mm to 43 x 50 mm, all extremely finely executed in brown pen and ink, full-page title elaborately illustrated in immensely detailed architectural design with angels holding flowers on the pediment, standing figures of Aaron and Moses and vignettes of David in prayer and Solomon enthroned and attended by lions. Some slight thumbing towards the beginning and occasional spots of wear but generally in very fresh clean condition throughout. Contemporary orange-stained vellum over pasteboards, elaborately gilt, stamped with initials HH AS on upper cover, marbled endleaves, edges gilt, binding slightly worn.

Malachi Beit-Arie, Jeremy Schonfield and Emile Schrijver, Perek Shirah; An Eighteenth-Century Illuminated Hebrew Book of Praise (London, 1996); E.G.L. Schrijver, A Repertory of Decorated Hebrew Manuscripts of the Eighteenth Century (in progress); S. de Melker, E. Schrijver, E. van Voolen, eds., The Image of the Word (Leuven, 1990); I. Fishof, Grace After Meals:… a Study Written… to the Facsimile Edition of the Original Manuscript Preserved in the Jewish Museum (Budapest) no. 64.626 (Budapest, 1991); Menahem Schmelzer, "Decorated Hebrew Manuscripts of the Eighteenth Century in the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America" in Occident and Orient: A Tribute to the Memory of Alexander Scheiber (Leiden, 1988), p. 338, no. 24; Vivian B. Mann and Richard I. Cohen, eds., From Court Jews to the Rothschilds 1600-–1800: Art, Patronage, and Power (Munich/New York, 1996), no.169; Evelyn Cohen, Sharon Liberman Mintz, Emile G.L. Schrijver, eds.,  A Journey through Jewish Worlds: Highlights from the Braginsky Collection of Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books, Amsterdam: 2009, pp.106-7.

ARTIST AND SCRIBE 
Meshulam Zimmel ben Moses of Polna is acknowledged as the scribe and artist of some thirty manuscripts produced between 1714 and 1756, though only sixteen of these, including the present volume, bear his signature.  He is perhaps best known for his masterful imitation of the technique of copperplate engraving and occasionally refers to himself explicitly as an engraver or, as he does in this manuscript, to having "engraved upon the plates as if they were of copper."  Renowned for the accomplished delicacy of his line, Zimmel is especially skilled in his depiction of animals.  Nowhere is this expertise better demonstrated than in the illustrations executed by Zimmel in the several copies he penned of Perek Shirah, wherein all elements of creation—the heavens, vegetation and all living creatures—sing praise to God.

Pirkei Shirah (lit. Chapters of Song) is an anonymous collection of lyrical verses, extolling the praises of the Creator, and placed in the mouths of His creations. All are included, except for man—the natural and supernatural orders, inanimate nature, the heavens and all their hosts, the world of animals, and the world of plants—each according to its kind. Together these hymns comprise the cosmic song of God's praise by the whole of creation. 

The inspirational texts of this composition when joined with the unique talents of this accomplished scribe have combined to make the present work, an extraordinary example of the beautiful artistic creativity of Meshulam Zimmel ben Moses of Polna, one of the most exceptional surviving examples of eighteenth-century decorated Hebrew manuscripts.

 

TEXT AND ILLUSTRATION
The miniatures, in the style of engravings, show a detail and a delicacy which is altogether exceptional. The book opens with an extremely elaborate architectural title-page with vignettes of Aaron, Moses, David and Solomon. The Perek Shirah (fols. 2r-9v) has 75 charming miniatures of all the creatures of God's creation, except man, joining to sing poetic praise to the Creator. The text opens and closes with panels of rococo ornament including two birds among foliage (f.2r) and a woman's face (f.9v). The subjects of the 76 miniatures are divided into six broad categories:

A: Natural phenomena: (1) the heavens, (2) the earth, (3) day, (4) night, (5) the sun, (6) the moon, (7) the stars, (8) the Clouds of Glory, (9) lightning, (10) wind, (11) dew, (12) rain, (13) rivers and springs, (14) the oceans, (15) Leviathan, (16) fishes, (17) whales, (18) the Garden of Eden, (19) Gehenna (mouth of Hell), (20) the wilderness, (21) the plains,

B:The Earth’s Bounty: (22) a vegetable garden, (23) fields of wheat, (24) fields of barley, (25) fields of corn, (26) trees, (27) grapevines, (28) a fig tree, (29) pomegranate, (30) date trees, (31) an apple tree,

C: Lower Animals: (32) tiny insects, (33) the “stronger” insects, (34) a toad, (35) a snake, (36) a scorpion, (37) a cat, (38) a mouse, (39) flies, (40) a snail, (41) an ant, (42) a spider, (43) a squirrel,

D: The Birds: (44) a rooster, (45) a hen, (46) a dove, (47) a domesticated goose, (48) wild geese, (49) an eagle, (50) a stork, (51) an Egyptian vulture, (52) a crow, (53) a pelican, (54) a crane, (55) a thrush, (56) locusts, (57) grasshoppers,

E: Domesticated Beasts: (58) an ox, (59) goats and sheep, (60) a cow, (61) a pig, (62) a beast of burden, (63) a horse, (64) a donkey,

 F: Wild Beasts: (65) the animals of the forest, (66) a lion, (67) a stag, (68) a camel, (69) an elephant, (70) a bear, (71) a wolf, (72) a fox, (73) a griffon, and (74) a weasel.

The two final miniatures depict (75) a formal garden, and (76) the interior of a temple.

These miniatures form a delightful eighteenth-century evocation of the world, and incidentally include some fine depictions of contemporary artefacts, such as the classical pepper-pot (which shakes dew over the world), a great sailing ship (f 3r), and the ornamental courtly gardens (ff. 4r and 91r) which were a feature of Hapsburg Vienna.

Tehillim (Psalms) (fols.10r-102r), opens with four very fine headpieces, showing David playing his harp between two cornucopiae (f.10r), a cherub (f.10v), two heads of griffons (f. 11r) , and a magnificent pair of seated stags (f. 11v), and includes further headpieces showing two storks pecking at a vase of flowers (f26r), two bantams (f.35v), two dogs (f. 41r), elaborate foliage (f 53v), two geese holding a crown of flowers (f66r), and tulips and roses (f.89r). The text is followed by the prayer for rain (f.l02r).

Tefilah ‘al Atzirat Geshamim (f.102r). Not illustrated. 

Seder Tefilat Yom Kippur Katan (fols.103r-114v) has elaborate headpieces of a coronet among flowers (f. 103r), foliage (f. 104r), two heads of lions (f 105v), Sunflowers (f.l08r), and foliage (f. 109v).