Wednesday, 16 November 2016

Claudia D. Bergmann presented a working paper on 'Last Things Last: The Meal Scene on the Last Page of the Ambrosian Bible'

The paper is part of the research project on Biblical Food Motifs – Contemporary Customs: How Medieval Culture Influenced the Depiction of Food and Eating in Illuminated Jewish Books from Ashkenaz.

The research project sees itself as interdisciplinary. It will discuss the biblical roots for selected food items and food-related activities, investigate depictions of communal meals in early Jewish medieval manuscripts in Ashkenaz, and ask the question how these visual depictions of acts of (communal) eating betray knowledge of early Jewish literary traditions as well as medieval Jewish and Christian (meal) cultures. The main pictorial source for this proposed project are the following early Ashkenazi illuminated manuscripts from the 13th and 14th centuries: the Ambrosian Bible: c. 1236 probably from Würzburg or Ulm (MS B 32 inf., Bibliotheca Ambrosiana, Milan); the Birds’ Head Haggadah: c. 1300, probably from Würzburg (Israel Museum, Jerusalem); the Leipzig Mahzor: c. 1310, from Southern Germany possibly Worms (Ms Vollers 1002, Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig). The list of 14th and 15th century Ashkenazi manuscripts that will also be taken into consideration includes, but is not limited to: the Darmstadt Haggadah: from the 14th century (COD.OR. 8, Universität- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt); the Ashkenazi Haggadah: c. 1460, probably from Ulm (Add 14762, British Library); the Washington Haggadah: written by Joel ben Simeon from Cologne in 1478 (United States Library of Congress). While the project “Biblical Food Motifs – Contemporary Customs: How Medieval Culture Influenced the Depiction of Food and Eating in Illuminated Jewish Books from Ashkenaz” does not propose to be a comprehensive overview over the topic, it intends to present representative case studies that illustrate the topic.
This is a sub-project of the research project on 'Dynamics of Jewish Ritual Practices in Pluralistic Contexts from Antiquity to the Present'

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