"Mishneh Torah", Maimonides (1180), copied in Spain, illuminated in Perugia (c. 1400)
A typical decorated opening page for the "Book of Love [of God]." The
illustration on the top initial-word panel shows a man embracing a Torah
scroll. In the lower margin another man is reciting the shema before
going to bed. This is one of the most sumptuous manuscripts of the
Mishneh Torah. In the absence of colophon, it can be inferred from the
script that the manuscript was copied either in Spain or southern France
in the first half of the 14th century (in any case, before 1351, when
the codex was sold in Avignon). The scribe's name was probably Isaac,
since this name is decorated in several places in the text. The
manuscript was illuminated in burnished gold and lively wash colors by a
skilled non-Jewish artist of Perugia, Matteo di Ser Cambio.
"Illuminated Manuscripts" by Bezalel Narkiss, Encyclopedia Judaica,
Jerusalem (1969)
