A Magnificient Illustrated Esther Scroll, (Prague: ca. 1700)

Engraved on parchment, (12 ½ x 101 in.; 317 x  2570 mm). Text written in square Ashkenazic script arranged in 16 columns with 24  lines to a column. 4 membranes stitched together; on two turned wooden rollers.

Cohen, Mintz and Schrijver. A Journey through Jewish Worlds. Highlights from the Braginsky Collection of Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books, Amsterdam: 2009, pp. 266-67.

This splendid scroll of Esther is an extremely rare example of a megillah with a superb engraved border created by the artist Paul-Jean Franck. The eighteenth century witnessed the growth and success of numerous publishers of Hebrew books. These printers, presumably looking to further expand their market, undertook to produce illustrated megillot for use on the holiday of Purim. Recognizing that according to Jewish law, Esther scrolls must be written by hand in order to be ritually fit, the printers engraved highly decorative borders onto prepared parchment and left blocks of blank space within these borders, so that a scribe might insert the biblical text. The majority of eighteenth-century megillot with engraved borders were produced in Amsterdam and Venice. This Bohemian scroll, however, is an exceptionally rare example of a printed border published outside of these two centers. The signature of its remarkably skilled engraver, Paul-Jean Franck, can be found in the first panel of this scroll.

The megillah is decorated with seven elaborate scenes from the Purim story; three are placed at the opening of the scroll and an additional four are positioned at the conclusion of the text. The images preceding the text depict: 1. King Ahasuerus seated on his throne with a triumphant Mordecai being led on horseback in the background; 2. Mordecai informing the king of Bigthan's and Teresh's plot on his life; 3. The King's garden. The images at the end of the scroll feature scenes of: 1. Jews celebrating the holiday at a feast; 2. The banquet at which Esther denounces Haman to the king with the gallows prepared for Mordecai in the background; 3. Ahasuerus extending his scepter to Esther and granting Mordecai his ring as Haman hangs in the distance; 4. Mordecai composing a letter chronicling all the preceding events.

The scroll is further embellished with eleven smaller vignettes and figures placed on top of the monumental spiral columns. The first scene shown here depicts the hanging of the two traitors, Bigthan and Teresh. This is followed by Esther surrounded by her attendants. The upper and lower borders are embellished with repeating cartouches containing castles and mansions set against dramatic landscapes. Additionally, nude half-length female figures emerge from scrolling foliate vines, and peacocks, perched in naturalistic poses, create a theatrical, albeit unrelated, backdrop to the Hebrew text. The scribe who elegantly penned this scroll onto the parchment also added captions beneath each of the illustrations which identify the scenes and the central figures in the story.

The present scroll is an exceptionally fine copy of a magnificent engraved border of which only a very few examples have survived.