Sefer Shehitot u-Bedikot (Book on the Laws of Ritual Slaughter and Inspection), Israel David Luzzatto, Mantua: 1804-1806

17 folios (9 1/4 x 6 7/8 in.; 235 x 175 mm) on thick paper; contemporary section numbering; modern foliation in pencil in Arabic numerals in upper-outer margin of recto; outer margins and some lines ruled in pencil; illustrations of animal lungs and associated organs on ff. 2r, 3r, 4r, 5r, 6v, 7r; several manicules on ff. 7v-8r; tapering text design on ff. 10v, 12v; table of contents on ff. 13v-15v; with floral periodically throughout. Scattered staining, thumbing, and smudging of ink; slight dampstaining in outer margin starting on f. 4; light worm damage in upper margin on ff. 8-16 and in lower margin on ff. 12-13; stub between ff. 12-13. Modern vellum over board, stained; modern flyleaves and pastedowns.

A summary of the laws of ritual slaughter and subsequent inspection of the organs, in an elegant Italian cursive with technical/halakhic terms written in Hebrew square script, accompanied by colorful diagrams illustrating the anatomy of an animal’s lungs, heart, liver, etc. and the various blemishes that can render a slaughtered animal non-kosher. The section on ritual slaughter and beginning of the section on inspection are lacking.

According to the colophon (f. 12v), the work was completed by Israel David Luzzatto (1746-1806) on May 10, 1804. On the following page (f. 13r) appears a copy of the kabbalah (certificate) issued to Luzzatto affirming his proficiency in the relevant laws and granting him the right to serve as a ritual slaughterer of both fowl and cattle, signed Sunday, 22 Sivan [5]566 (June 8, 1806) by Rabbis Azriel Isaac (Bonaiut Isak) Levi (d. 1809), Mazliah Moses Ariani, Samuel Hayyim Senigalia, and Jehiel Menahem Urbino (the last of whom was the community’s official ritual slaughter). A postscript on f. 16r, dated July 24, 1815 and written in a different hand, features an illustration of a bird with its esophagus and trachea protruding.

Aside from copying our manuscript, Luzzatto was also the artist of a series of sukkah decorations, one of which is currently in the collection of the Jewish Museum in New York and the other six of which are at the Smithsonian Institution. The Jewish Museum plaque, the only one of the set that Luzzatto signed, was produced ca. 1775 in Trieste and features the entire text of Ecclesiastes written in micrography in the form of an astrolabe.

Literature

Norman L. Kleeblatt and Vivian B. Mann, Treasures of the Jewish Museum (New York: Universe Books, 1986), 86-87.