An Exceedingly Rare 17th Century Decorated Ketubbah, Modena: 1672

Ink on parchment

(15 3/8 x 12 1/4 in.; 395 x 310 mm). Text within an oval frame, elaborate and delicately drawn floral border in pen and ink, oval cartouche in upper border for family coats-of-arms left unaccomplished; text and decoration somewhat faded. Mounted on rose colored mat board, glazed, and framed; not examined outside of frame.  

Celebrating the wedding of Meir Eliezer, son of the late Barukh Fontas to Gutale, daughter of the late Shabbetai Basilea on Friday 15th Sivan 5432 (= May 13, 1672).

The decorative scheme of this early ketubbah, with its elegant floral pen and ink drawings, as well as its biblical verses, inscribed in fine Hebrew calligraphy, are characteristic of ketubbot created in Modena. This document is one of only a handful of known examples of seventeenth-century decorated ketubbot from Modena.