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The Magnificent Parchment
The Magnificent Parchment represents the pinnacle of Italian ilanot from the Renaissance. Originally crafted around 1500 by an anonymous Italian kabbalist and scribal artist, this monumental work spans multiple stitched membranes, forming an expansive rotulus that maps both the celestial and divine realms in unparalleled detail.
The Magnificent Parchment weaves together the kabbalistic texts and images of its era to create an intricate iconotextual summa. Within its vast dimensions, over 33,000 words of kabbalistic writings are meticulously inscribed alongside a profusion of diagrams, symbolic motifs, and elaborate embellishments. The sefirotic tree appears in multiple configurations — visualized as a huppah (wedding canopy), a schematic Garden of Eden, and in the Italian version of the iconic tree — presenting the top three sefirot one atop the other rather than triangulated.
The uppermost sefirah, Keter, is crowned by an arresting image of the Infinite depicted as an open eye, captioned “Ein Sof”. Serpents and dragons coil through the composition, while flowing rivers, bubbling wells, and rabbinic figures add unexpected elements to the visual lexicon. The lower portion of the parchment is dominated by a grand zodiac wheel, situating the divine order in relation to the cosmos.
A masterwork of both kabbalistic scholarship and scribal artistry, the Magnificent Parchment is exhaustive in its conceptual scope and exquisite in execution. Even after careful study, it remains an object of enigmatic complexity, offering a profound glimpse into the intellectual and mystical pursuits of its time.
Courtesy of The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, CC-BY-NC 4.0
The Magnificent Parchment weaves together the kabbalistic texts and images of its era to create an intricate iconotextual summa. Within its vast dimensions, over 33,000 words of kabbalistic writings are meticulously inscribed alongside a profusion of diagrams, symbolic motifs, and elaborate embellishments. The sefirotic tree appears in multiple configurations — visualized as a huppah (wedding canopy), a schematic Garden of Eden, and in the Italian version of the iconic tree — presenting the top three sefirot one atop the other rather than triangulated.
The uppermost sefirah, Keter, is crowned by an arresting image of the Infinite depicted as an open eye, captioned “Ein Sof”. Serpents and dragons coil through the composition, while flowing rivers, bubbling wells, and rabbinic figures add unexpected elements to the visual lexicon. The lower portion of the parchment is dominated by a grand zodiac wheel, situating the divine order in relation to the cosmos.
A masterwork of both kabbalistic scholarship and scribal artistry, the Magnificent Parchment is exhaustive in its conceptual scope and exquisite in execution. Even after careful study, it remains an object of enigmatic complexity, offering a profound glimpse into the intellectual and mystical pursuits of its time.
Courtesy of The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, CC-BY-NC 4.0
Coppio Ilan Amulet
Jewish amulets (kameot) have long served as protective objects, their parchment inscriptions carrying prayers, divine names, and mystical figures believed to ward off harm. This fragment, enlarged from its original wearable form, draws from a lineage of ilanot scrolls integrating kabbalistic imagery with sacred text.
The idea of a rolled parchment offering divine protection has ancient origins, first appearing in the biblical commandment of the mezuzah. Jewish parchment amulets expand this concept, inscribing texts and symbols upon scrolls intended to be worn by those in need of their protection. These amulets, often rolled and encased, were found throughout the Jewish diaspora, including in the famed Cairo Genizah.
This particular ilan-amulet is based on a design innovated by the kabbalist R. Isaac Coppio (ca. 1680–1730): his Two-Column Ilan. This ilan-amulet was likely crafted in Jerusalem around 1900 on goat parchment by the scribe Nissim Sejera, a Bukharan master sofer. Like many ilan-amulets, it features a standard kabbalistic diagram — originally intended for study and contemplation — that has been repurposed for protective use through the addition of amuletic framing text. Now, presented at an enlarged but faithfully rendered scale, this beautiful amulet offers a rare glimpse into a tradition where sacred art and divine safeguarding intertwine.
Courtesy of The National Library of Israel, Ms. Heb. 9788=4
The idea of a rolled parchment offering divine protection has ancient origins, first appearing in the biblical commandment of the mezuzah. Jewish parchment amulets expand this concept, inscribing texts and symbols upon scrolls intended to be worn by those in need of their protection. These amulets, often rolled and encased, were found throughout the Jewish diaspora, including in the famed Cairo Genizah.
This particular ilan-amulet is based on a design innovated by the kabbalist R. Isaac Coppio (ca. 1680–1730): his Two-Column Ilan. This ilan-amulet was likely crafted in Jerusalem around 1900 on goat parchment by the scribe Nissim Sejera, a Bukharan master sofer. Like many ilan-amulets, it features a standard kabbalistic diagram — originally intended for study and contemplation — that has been repurposed for protective use through the addition of amuletic framing text. Now, presented at an enlarged but faithfully rendered scale, this beautiful amulet offers a rare glimpse into a tradition where sacred art and divine safeguarding intertwine.
Courtesy of The National Library of Israel, Ms. Heb. 9788=4
Thirty-Two Paths of Wisdom
This sefirotic tree, a richly symmetrical visualization of the “Thirty-Two Paths of Wisdom,” is one of many beautifully crafted diagrammatic illustrations found in a luxury manuscript of the canonical Lurianic treatise, Etz Hayyim, crafted in central Europe in 1774. The volume was copied by a scribe named Israel Sofer, who tellingly referred to himself as “the scribe and artist" (in Hebrew "hasofer ve-ha metzayer Israel"). Sofer’s model would have been one of the stunningly similar copies of Etz Hayyim created some decades earlier by Israel Ben Asher Buchbinder. (The copy of Buchbinder’s Etz Hayyim likely used by Sofer is today held by the Jewish Museum in Prague (MS 69), though an almost identical copy today in Copenhagen (MS 43) could also have served in that capacity.
Buchbinder produced several ornate volumes of ‘Ez Hayyim, notable not only for their artistry but also for their interpretive visualizations of complex kabbalistic ideas. This ilan stands out in part for its integration of malkhut — the tenth and lowest sefirah — within the full constellation of sefirot, rather than isolating it or excluding it from the diagram.
The ilan gives balanced form to the 32 paths described in Sefer Yetzirah: ten sefirot and twenty-two Hebrew letters. The latter were associated by kabbalists with the channels that network the sefirotic hubs of the kabbalistic tree. With exceptional dedication to the division of the Hebrew alphabet into three groups (“three mother letters, seven doubled letters, and twelve simple letters), this tree features precisely three horizontal, seven vertical, and twelve diagonal channels.The result is an image of precise structure and spiritual resonance, embodying the intricate relationship between divine emanation and sacred language.
Courtesy of The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS Opp. Add. Fol. 32.
Buchbinder produced several ornate volumes of ‘Ez Hayyim, notable not only for their artistry but also for their interpretive visualizations of complex kabbalistic ideas. This ilan stands out in part for its integration of malkhut — the tenth and lowest sefirah — within the full constellation of sefirot, rather than isolating it or excluding it from the diagram.
The ilan gives balanced form to the 32 paths described in Sefer Yetzirah: ten sefirot and twenty-two Hebrew letters. The latter were associated by kabbalists with the channels that network the sefirotic hubs of the kabbalistic tree. With exceptional dedication to the division of the Hebrew alphabet into three groups (“three mother letters, seven doubled letters, and twelve simple letters), this tree features precisely three horizontal, seven vertical, and twelve diagonal channels.The result is an image of precise structure and spiritual resonance, embodying the intricate relationship between divine emanation and sacred language.
Courtesy of The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS Opp. Add. Fol. 32.
The Great Parchment
This remarkable ilan was produced on parchment in Paris around 1606 by a Scottish Hebraist working under the name Jacob Hebroni. Hebroni’s ilan is a distinctive reworking of a centuries-old “Great Parchment” that had reached Paris with the library of Catherine de’ Medici (1519–1589), after having been acquired from an Italian Jew by Egidio di Viterbo (1472–1532).
Unlike most ilanot, this piece incorporates vibrant colors, presenting each medallion in a distinctive hue. The divine names, from EHYH to Adonai, are inscribed in bold, hollow lettering, while the outer rings of the medallions contain classical appellations of the sefirot.
To the right and left of the ilan stand the Menorah (Candelabrum) and the Shulḥan leḥem ha-panim (Table of Showbread), reflecting their placement in theTabernacle/Temple and their deep symbolic resonance. Below, vivid imagery enriches the composition: the Merkavah (Divine Chariot) supported by four cherubs, and two striking depictions of the Garden of Eden, its gates guarded by celestial beings.
This Great Parchment presents a striking fusion of meticulous schematization and vivid artistic expression, blending structured theological mapping with an unusually rich visual palette. The interplay of bold calligraphy, symbolic iconography, and carefully applied color elevates it beyond a didactic tool, distinguishing it as an exceptional instance of artistic refinement within the tradition of ilanot.
Courtesy of The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, CC-BY-NC 4.0
Unlike most ilanot, this piece incorporates vibrant colors, presenting each medallion in a distinctive hue. The divine names, from EHYH to Adonai, are inscribed in bold, hollow lettering, while the outer rings of the medallions contain classical appellations of the sefirot.
To the right and left of the ilan stand the Menorah (Candelabrum) and the Shulḥan leḥem ha-panim (Table of Showbread), reflecting their placement in theTabernacle/Temple and their deep symbolic resonance. Below, vivid imagery enriches the composition: the Merkavah (Divine Chariot) supported by four cherubs, and two striking depictions of the Garden of Eden, its gates guarded by celestial beings.
This Great Parchment presents a striking fusion of meticulous schematization and vivid artistic expression, blending structured theological mapping with an unusually rich visual palette. The interplay of bold calligraphy, symbolic iconography, and carefully applied color elevates it beyond a didactic tool, distinguishing it as an exceptional instance of artistic refinement within the tradition of ilanot.
Courtesy of The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, CC-BY-NC 4.0
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