Mar 2, 2010 By: yunews
Seven Centuries of Jewish Tradition Spring to Vivid Life at March 21 U.S. Premiere of Braginsky Manuscript and Book Collection
Direct from its world premiere in Amsterdam, the Yeshiva University Museum will host the first-ever U.S. showing of an extraordinary private collection -- A Journey Through Jewish Worlds: Highlights from the Braginsky Collection of Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books.
The exhibition opens on March 21 and will run through July 11, 2010. The Yeshiva University Museum is located at the Center for Jewish History at 15 West 16th Street in New York City.
Read reviews in The Jewish Week and Jewish Press.
For the past several decades, Swiss collector René Braginsky has been building a spectacular collection of Hebrew manuscripts and printed books. A Journey Through Jewish Worlds marks the first time that he has opened his collection to a wide audience, first in Amsterdam and now, in New York City.
Private collections of this kind are rarely made available to a large public and the prospect of glimpsing these treasures of Jewish tradition drew capacity crowds at the world premiere in Amsterdam. Indeed, the scope and quality of the Braginsky collection makes the upcoming exhibition at the Yeshiva University Museum an especially remarkable event.
“These dazzling manuscripts provide insights into the Jewish experience over centuries and across the globe,” said Sharon Liberman Mintz, a prominent curator of Jewish Art at the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary and a senior consultant for Judaica at Sotheby’s. “They transmit a sophisticated appreciation of beauty and convey the centrality of text in Jewish life. A showing like this represents a remarkable opportunity for the viewer."
The world-class curatorial team has selected the most precious, fascinating and beautiful examples from a total of over 600 items in the Braginsky Collection for this exhibition.
In A Journey Through Jewish Worlds, an exceptional range of important handwritten Hebrew books will be on display. These include illustrated manuscripts, around one third of which date from the Middle Ages and highlights from the largest privately-held collection of works created during the renaissance of decorated Hebrew manuscripts in the 18th century. The exhibition will also feature beautifully decorated Jewish marriage contracts [ketubbot] and illustrated scrolls of the Book of Esther [megillot], with richly crafted cases made of wood, ivory or silver and gold from Jewish communities across the globe.
This opulent collection spans seven centuries with examples of artwork from virtually every corner of the Jewish world. It presents a rich, multi-cultural tour through Jewish history.
Highlights of the exhibition include:
• The Charlotte von Rothschild Haggadah, an opulent work from 1842, the first Hebrew manuscript known to have been illuminated by a woman
• Richly-illustrated Italian marriage contracts on parchment, adorned with a proliferation of colorful signs of the zodiac, symbols of the twelve tribes and other evocative iconography
• Four centuries of elaborately-illustrated Esther Scrolls from Holland, Italy, Greece and India
• A 13th c. manuscript of a legal compendium handwritten in Germanic Lands
• A gold-embellished marriage contract from a wedding celebrated in Cochin, India
• A 16th Century Italian Esther Scroll written by a female scribe, the earliest known decorated object of its kind
• Moses Nahmanides’s Perush ha-Torah (Commentary on the Pentateuch), published in Rome circa 1469-1472,one of the first printed Hebrew books
Direct from its world premiere in Amsterdam, the Yeshiva University Museum will host the first-ever U.S. showing of an extraordinary private collection -- A Journey Through Jewish Worlds: Highlights from the Braginsky Collection of Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books.
The exhibition opens on March 21 and will run through July 11, 2010. The Yeshiva University Museum is located at the Center for Jewish History at 15 West 16th Street in New York City.
Read reviews in The Jewish Week and Jewish Press.
For the past several decades, Swiss collector René Braginsky has been building a spectacular collection of Hebrew manuscripts and printed books. A Journey Through Jewish Worlds marks the first time that he has opened his collection to a wide audience, first in Amsterdam and now, in New York City.
Private collections of this kind are rarely made available to a large public and the prospect of glimpsing these treasures of Jewish tradition drew capacity crowds at the world premiere in Amsterdam. Indeed, the scope and quality of the Braginsky collection makes the upcoming exhibition at the Yeshiva University Museum an especially remarkable event.
“These dazzling manuscripts provide insights into the Jewish experience over centuries and across the globe,” said Sharon Liberman Mintz, a prominent curator of Jewish Art at the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary and a senior consultant for Judaica at Sotheby’s. “They transmit a sophisticated appreciation of beauty and convey the centrality of text in Jewish life. A showing like this represents a remarkable opportunity for the viewer."
The world-class curatorial team has selected the most precious, fascinating and beautiful examples from a total of over 600 items in the Braginsky Collection for this exhibition.
In A Journey Through Jewish Worlds, an exceptional range of important handwritten Hebrew books will be on display. These include illustrated manuscripts, around one third of which date from the Middle Ages and highlights from the largest privately-held collection of works created during the renaissance of decorated Hebrew manuscripts in the 18th century. The exhibition will also feature beautifully decorated Jewish marriage contracts [ketubbot] and illustrated scrolls of the Book of Esther [megillot], with richly crafted cases made of wood, ivory or silver and gold from Jewish communities across the globe.
This opulent collection spans seven centuries with examples of artwork from virtually every corner of the Jewish world. It presents a rich, multi-cultural tour through Jewish history.
Highlights of the exhibition include:
• The Charlotte von Rothschild Haggadah, an opulent work from 1842, the first Hebrew manuscript known to have been illuminated by a woman
• Richly-illustrated Italian marriage contracts on parchment, adorned with a proliferation of colorful signs of the zodiac, symbols of the twelve tribes and other evocative iconography
• Four centuries of elaborately-illustrated Esther Scrolls from Holland, Italy, Greece and India
• A 13th c. manuscript of a legal compendium handwritten in Germanic Lands
• A gold-embellished marriage contract from a wedding celebrated in Cochin, India
• A 16th Century Italian Esther Scroll written by a female scribe, the earliest known decorated object of its kind
• Moses Nahmanides’s Perush ha-Torah (Commentary on the Pentateuch), published in Rome circa 1469-1472,one of the first printed Hebrew books
