Ms. codex.
Title for manuscript supplied by cataloger from title for predominant work (Sotheby's).
Collation: Paper, i + 36 + i; 1-3¹⁰ 4⁶. Catchwords on most leaves (f. 2-33), lower left verso.
Layout: Written in 30 long lines; ruled in faint ink with vertical bounding lines.
Script: Written in Italian semi-cursive Hebrew script by Joseph ben Abraham Finzi di Legnago (Fabrizio Lelli), with a note
and drawing in the hand of the author (f. 32v, according to Edna Engel), and a brief work added at the end of the manuscript
in a later hand (f. 35r-36r).
Decoration: Diagram of 6 stars and 16 symbols resembling the letter S, with a caption explaining that they represent stars
and lines in the sky in the New World (f. 32v); decorative additions in the outer margins of the early leaves of the manuscript,
including several manicules (f. 1r-12v).
Binding: Modern morocco, blind-tooled, over pasteboards.
Origin: Written in northern Italy, probably Ferrara, after 1525 (Edna Engel).
The author and his scribal workshop, but not this manuscript, are discussed in Engel, Edna. "Abraham ben Mordecai Farissol:
Sephardi tradition of book making in northern Italy of the Renaissance period." In Jewish Art 18 (1992), 149-167.
|