É. Apor (ed.): David Kaufmann Memorial Volume: Papers Presented at the David Kaufmann Memorial Conference, November 29, 1999, Budapest.
ORMOS, István: David Kaufmann and his Collection
DAVID KAUFMANN AND His COLLECTION dead without a coffin in the illustration of the death of the first-born as a sign of the Christian background of the illuminator. This question requires further investigation. In the Middle Ages there was no general rule as to whether the burial should be in a coffin or not. In Spain the coffin was not in vogue. On the other hand, French Jews seem to have used it and French customs may have influenced nearby Catalonia."" Maimonides, who was born and grew up in Spain, also mentions the use of wooden coffins."" Sed-Rajna regards this way of representation as being in accordance with Jewish custom. 1 2" We can state now that in view of the proofs adduced in our present article it seems reasonable to assume that in some places and periods at least Christian artists did participate in the illumination of Hebrew manuscripts. After all, illuminated manuscripts were expensive luxury articles which were produced in small numbers only because demand was not great and most of the time the market was probably too small for illuminators specializing in Hebrew manuscripts. However, it can be said that this problem requires further detailed research before a final general statement can be made because conditions may have changed considerably from place to place and from time to time. 12 1 An interesting parallel can be adduced here for a similar case when representatives of one religion follow their own traditions in the execution of illustrations in manuscripts belonging to the sphere of another religion: in a Persian manuscript from the sixteenth century preserved in Oxford, the Queen of Sheba is depicted as crossing a real river in front of Solomon. This, however, does not correspond to Islamic tradition but is in accordance with Christian beliefs. This strange phenomenon can be explained by the preponderance of Christians among Persian miniators in those times. The proofs for an eventual Christian provenance of illustrations must be carefully weighed in every case: not everything is a proof what seems to be one at first sight. Such a case can now be demonstrated in an important though little-known Hebrew "* In the Middle Ages, the Provence was culturally and linguistically nearer to Spain than to France. ROTH I960. 142. m Encyclopaedia Judaica. Jerusalem - New York 1971-1972. IV. 1519 [s.v. Burial], V. 657658 [s.v. Coffin], ""Gabrielle SED-RAJNA, The Kaufmann Haggadah. Budapest 1990. 19. 12 1 On this subject cf. e.g. Evelyn COHEN'S contribution The Kaufmann Mishneh Torah Illuminations in the present volume and SUCKALE 1988. 123-134. On an important aspect of the possible early interaction between Christian and Jewish art, see SLD-RAJNA 1987. 155-156. Gabrielle SED-RAJNA, Les synagogues antiques. Architecture, peintures murales, mosaíques du III au X 1 siécle. In: Gabrielle SED-RAJNA - Ziva AMISHAI-MAISELS Dominique JARRASSÉ - Rudolf KLEIN - Ronny REICH, L'Artjuif. Paris 1995. 126-127. ' Andre CHASTEL, La rencontre de Salomon et de la Reine de Saha dans l'iconographie médiévale Gazette des Beaux-Arts 35 (1949) 105, 106 [flg. 5], 151
