An Important Decorated Ketubbah from Mantua, 1668

Celebrating the wedding of Shemaiah ben Amminadab Cases and Mirele bat Joseph Rimini on Friday, 15 Sivan 5428 (May 25, 1668).

This exceptionally early Mantuan ketubbah features a unique decorative scheme of vibrantly painted interlocking circles embellished with gold and silver dots. Whereas the central imagery, a crown and gateway motif, is found in other ketubbot from the seventeenth century, the present lot is the only known decorated marriage contract from this early period to feature this sophisticated geometric border design. A roundel at the top center of the ketubbah contains the family emblem of the groom: two birds on a branch with the word shalom written in Hebrew above their heads. In the center of the lower border appears the family emblem of the bride: a lion rampant with a flowering branch.

The groom, Shemaiah, was a scion of the celebrated Cases family who were prominent members of the Jewish community of Mantua. The groom’s father, Rabbi Luliano Shalom Cases, was a physician who treated the poor. He served as the rabbi of Mantua from 1622 to 1630 and was the author of Derekh yesharah (Mantua, 1626), a lengthy treatise regarding the system of communal taxation in Mantua. He was killed in the siege of Mantua in 1630.

The ketubbah is signed by two noted rabbinic personalities who served as witnesses:

1. Rabbi Gur Aryeh ben Moses Hosea ha-Levi Finzi, a scholar and author whose glosses on the Shulhan arukh were printed posthumously in the edition published in Mantua in 1722.

2. Rabbi Solomon ben Benjamin Formiggini, a kabbalist and the official scribe of the Mantua Jewish community.

Physical Description

Ink and gouache on parchment (22 x 18 in.; 559 x 457 mm). Matted. Scattered stains and repairs to the lower border.