Benutzerspezifische Werkzeuge

In medieval Europe, language, especially the written word, carried weight as a vehicle of both shared and personal identities. In medieval Hebrew manuscripts especially, image and text worked together to provide a venue for reader-viewers to engage with language, ritual, memory, community, and sacrality. Many of the illuminated codices made by or for Jewish communities served to beautify the commandments (hiddur mitzvah) and were meant to be used—read, seen, heard, performed. In these manuscripts, Hebrew, the “holy tongue” (Lashon Hakodesh), functioned as the conduit for accessing the divine and for forging both personal and communal identities. Images worked alongside texts to express the ineffable and to enhance ritual. This dissertation examines the play between the functions, appearances, and meanings of Ashkenazi manuscripts from the early thirteenth century to the end of the fifteenth, contributing to our understanding and appreciation of how language and art operated in tandem in medieval visual culture.

[Caption: A pupil and teacher, end of the Book of Leviticus, Coburg Pentateuch, 1395, Coburg, Franconia, Germany. London, British Library, Ms. Add. 19776, fol. 72v. , OPenn: Add MS 19776 Torah, megilot ṿe-hafṭarot (תורה, מגילות והפטרות)]