Seder Birkat Hamazon … (Grace after Meals…), Scribe: [Aryeh Judah Leib Sofer ben Elhanan Katz of Treibitsch], Vienna:1720

34 folios (3 1/8 x 1 7/8 in.; 80 x 48 mm). collation: 1-8⁴, 9². Written in black and brown inks on parchment; main titles, headings and text in square Hebrew script with nikud, Yiddish instructions in Ashkenazic semicursive "wayber-taytsh" script, Hebrew instructions in "Rashi" script. Illustrated architectural title page, three text illustrations and eight decorated initial word panels. Light finger soiling; minor ink smudges and flaking. Nineteenth century owners' notes on rear flyleaf. Edges gilt; green coated endpapers. Contemporary straight grain morocco, elaborately gilt tooled. Lightly rubbed. Housed in an early pasteboard slipcase.

Emile G. L. Schrijver, "Some Superb Examples of 18th Century Penmanship: The Manuscripts of Aryeh Judah Leib of Trebitsch," in eds. Ulf Haxen et al., Jewish Studies in a New Europe: Proceedings of the 5th Congress…of the European Association for Jewish Studies, Copenhagen: 1998, pp. 732-744.

The early decades of the eighteenth century witnessed the first stages of a remarkable resurgence in the production of elaborately decorated Hebrew manuscripts when wealthy Court Jews in Germany and Central Europe began to commission exquisitely decorated handwritten Hebrew books as luxury items. The creators of these volumes combined innate artistic talent with scribal dexterity in order to develop this entirely new genre. Among the earliest of these renowned scribe/artists was Aryeh Judah Leib Sofer ben Elhanan Katz of Treibitsch.

Very little is known of the life of Aryeh Judah Leib Sofer other than what may be reconstructed by close analysis of the works he left behind. What we are able to ascertain is that he continued to create exquisite manuscripts for his wealthy patrons, from 1712 until 1739, mostly in Vienna, where, although Jews were in fact prohibited from residing, a handful of affluent families who served the Emperor, were allowed to live under edicts of personal toleration. His first client was a scion of the famous Oppenheim family and subsequent sponsors of his work were from equally illustrious lineages and included some of the most important Court Jews of the era. Of the 19 manuscripts known to have been produced by Aryeh Judah Leib, only 12 have survived the vicissitudes of Jewish life in Europe over the past three centuries. The present manuscript created in 1720, is unsigned but retains the elements that characterized Aryeh Judah Leib Sofer’s ground-breaking style and has been attributed to him by leading scholars of eighteenth century Hebrew manuscripts.

Miniature volumes such as this one, containing a variety of Hebrew prayers and blessings, were frequently commissioned by grooms and presented to their brides on the occasion of their marriage. Delicately wrought artistic creations, they provided the perfect blend of clear and eminently readable Hebrew and Yiddish text, with pleasing decorations and illustrations.

The present volume comprises the text for Birkat ha-Mazon (Grace after Meals) as well as Birkot ha-Nehenin (occasional blessings), Zemirot shel Shabbat (Sabbath Hymns), and Kriyat Shma al ha-Mita (Recitation of Shma before Retiring). It is embellished with a decorated title page whose text is set within an architectural framework. The three text illustrations include two miniatures accompanying the additional texts recited on Hanukkah and Purim; the first, a stylized menorah (f.4r); and the second, the hanging of Haman's sons (f. 5r). The final text illustration (f.32r), is a beautiful and delicate depiction of the Angel invoked by the Patriarch Jacob in Genesis 48:16. Eight decorative initial word panels with text set within elaborate scrolled cartouches are found on ff. 1v, 2r, 3r, 6v, 10r, 13v, 21r, and 29v.

LITERATURE: Emile Schrijver, "Some Superb Examples of 18th Century Penmanship: The Manuscripts of Aryeh Judah Leib of Trebitsch," in Jewish Studies in a New Europe, Copenhagen: 1998, pp. 732-744.