Treasures of Jewish Art

The Library of the Romanian Academy in Bucharest holds a rare piece of Jewish art from the seventeenth century, an illuminated scroll of the biblical Book of Esther, dated 1673. This manuscript is a unique example in terms of Jewish art because of two unique components. One of them is the date indicating a year in Cyrillic characters, viz. 7181 since the creation of the world according to Byzantine chronology, corresponding in the Gregorian calendar to the year 1673. The second component is the coat of arms of the Principality of Moldavia, placed within the escutcheon in the ornamental section at the beginning of the scroll.

This book includes a full-color reproduction of this manuscript, along with a comprehensive discussion of the origin and significance of this unique piece of Jewish Art. The author, the late Cornelia Bodea, was one of Romania’s most distinguished historians, a member of the Romanian Academy, and author of numerous books and articles.