AN ITALIAN EMBROIDERED TORAH MANTLE, 1744-1745

This magnificent, richly colored Torah mantle is embroidered with gilt thread forming an intricate floral pattern. The style of the textile, designed with a wide skirt that opens in the front and fashioned from a sumptuous fabric embellished with gilt threads, is typical of the Torah covers created for Italian Jews in the eighteenth century.

The top of the mantle contains a Hebrew dedicatory inscription recording that it was donated by Michael ben Moses Asahel Aziz in the year 5505 (1744-1745). Members of the prominent Aziz family of Padua were known for the beauty of the Judaica objects that they commissioned, including magnificently decorated ketubbot and richly carved tombstones that are still extant in the Jewish cemetery of their native city.