Houghton-Medieval Studies Workshop in Early Book History

Yossi Chajes (Sir Isaac Wolfson Professor of Jewish Thought, University of Haifa), Reading the Tree: A Hands-On Workshop in Ilanot Manuscripts. Co-sponsored by the Committee on Medieval Studies and Houghton Library. Space in this hands-on workshop is limited; please click here to register.

This hands-on workshop centers on three major ilanot manuscripts on exclusive loan to the seminar from the Klau Library (HUC–JIR, Cincinnati): an early witness of the Magnificent Parchment (a pinnacle of the classical ilanot tradition); an extraordinary rotulus among the earliest extant “Great Trees” of the Lurianic school; and a highly imaginative ilan visualizing Saruqian cosmogonic teachings. Our close examination will be enriched by comparative consultation of kabbalistic works at Houghton, highlighting the visual repertoires these manuscripts adapt to map divine topography and the emanatory chain of being.