General

Title

Prague (Czechia), Jewish Museum: Ms. 69

Manuscript name

Module N

Summary

This 1730 luxury paper foldout, preserved in the Jewish Museum in Prague (Prague, Jewish Museum, Ms. 69), is a mature and richly illustrated witness of the Ilan of Expanded Names (N) module. Copied and illustrated by the self-described “scribe and artist” Israel ben Asher Buchbinder, the ilan serves as the concluding element of a Poppers edition of Ḥayyim Vital’s ‘Eẓ Ḥayyim. The manuscript represents the stage where Buchbinder’s exuberant rococo style attained its full artistic form, and it is reminiscent of printed models. The ilan features sophisticated ornamentation, such as spiraling vines, architectural ornaments accompanied by carved masks, and cherubic heads set atop folded angel wings. Regal tiaras can be seen crowning the three central circles of the diagram. Beyond the primary schema, the manuscript includes unique visualizations characteristic of Buchbinder’s mature work, such as a human head inside which sefirot and the letters of Sefer yeẓirah are marked, and a diagram representing hands opened like a book. These elaborate flourishes indicate the progressive beautification of the genre in the eighteenth century.

Support material

paper

Identifier

Ms. 69

NLI identifier

990000637360205171

Repository

Jewish Museum

Country

Czechia

Settlement

Prague

Research literature

J. H. Chajes, The Kabbalistic Tree (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2022), 160–161.