A Fine Illustrated Esther Scroll, Amsterdam, ca. 1710

The finely engraved border on this eighteenth-century Dutch scroll reflects the innovative technique of integrating printing technology with the age-old scribal tradition of writing by hand the entire text of the biblical book of Esther. Detailed narrative scenes of the Purim story unfold along the lower border and a series of four elaborate landscapes are presented in cartouches above the text columns. The decorated opening panel contains the benedictions recited before the reading of the scroll, surrounded by a series of illustrations including Esther and Ahasuerus seated on a double throne, Haman leading Mordecai through the streets of Shushan on the king’s horse, the hanging of Haman and his ten sons, and Esther and Mordecai writing the Purim letter.

This megillah belongs to a group of Esther scrolls produced in Amsterdam that share a similar border of engraved biblical scenes beneath the text column. They differ in that some scrolls feature engraved portraits above the text columns and others depict landscape scenes. The illustrations of the present scroll match exactly those found on the earliest known example of this group of megillot, dated 1701.

Physical Description

Scroll (6 3/4 x approx. 65 in.; 172 x approx. 1650 mm) on parchment. Text written in Ashkenazic square script in brown ink; arranged in 16 columns with 22 lines to a column on 4 membranes stitched together. Elaborately engraved borders. Scattered staining and dampstaining; some of the engraving and text abraded intermittently throughout; periodic creasing; opening panel cropped at right, with three small opening illustrations lacking; wear along upper and lower edges of membrane 1; tear and small loss (repaired) in upper edge of panel 1; two small holes affecting individual letters in membrane 2; one word filled in in the margin of membrane 3, column 4; one small hole near upper edge of membrane 4. Housed in a modern red leather-encased cylinder with lid, slightly worn, with pen mark.

Literature

Evelyn M. Cohen, Sharon Liberman Mintz, and Emile G.L. Schrijver (eds.), A Journey through Jewish Worlds: Highlights from the Braginsky Collection of Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books (Amsterdam: Bijzondere Collecties, Universiteit van Amsterdam; Zwolle: Waanders, 2009), 234-237.