Monday, October 19, 2015
A truly remarkable day.
I’m going to violate my self-imposed rule of no more than ten photos per
day because there’s so much to tell.
Our day was supposed to start at a reasonable 9:15 with a
trip to Siena, but something which Haim had been trying to arrange came
through. So, we left the hotel at 8:00
and walked about 15 minutes to the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana at the
Basilica of San Lorenzo. The Basilica
was designed in 1418 by Brunelleschi, and the cloister, which is where the
Laurentian library is, was completely designed by Michelangelo, including a
famous set of stairs which we used to enter:
The ceiling:
The windows are not Michelangelo’s, but rather are Flemish
and are wonderful:
One of the librarians had come in early to show us the
library, and had pulled a few treasures which would be of special interest to
our group. They were spectacular. As an example, here is a 1295 complete manuscript
Tanakh (Hebrew Bible):
The opening page (B’reishit):
The very first printed Soncino bible (1488):
And a number of incredible volumes. This was a very special experience. We left the library at 9:15 and drove into
the countryside towards Siena. We are
just past the grape harvest and just before the olive harvest. We arrived in Siena and had a walking tour of
the city with an explanation of the 17 districts which compete in the annual
horse race around the Piazza del Campo, the main square. People are very attached to their districts,
and rivalries are great. Siena has the
world’s oldest continually functioning bank, and has been a commercial and
trade center for a very long time. The
Duomo, consecrated in 1179, dominates the town, and is the most prominent
example of use of the city’s colors, white and black:
The floor contains 56 marble panels which are
extraordinary. Here’s one showing the
she-wolf nursing Romulus and Remus which is part of Siena’s story as well as
that of Rome!
The dome is magnificent:
And the altar, by Michelangelo, is beautiful:
We had lunch on the famous and beautiful Piazza del Campo:
Joyce had the best meal we’ve had in Italy here, a ricotta
ravioli with truffle sauce and sage.
After lunch we visited the synagogue:
We studied Joseph Da Modena’s “Trouble in the Siena Ghetto”
from 1633 and a detailed responsum by Rabbi Yosef Colon (1420-1480) on not
drinking wine. I don’t know where Haim
finds these things! It is pages long on
what to do if a person at a table doesn’t drink wine, especially if he is the
one who says the blessing over it.
We then left Siena and traveled through the beautiful countryside:
We came to the very beautiful Terra di Seta kosher wine
estate where we had a tour and a talk from the owner about his vineyard, olive
grove, and winemaking. The meshgiach was
there as it is pressing season, and he poured samples of three different wines
for us and discussed kosher wine. The
Chianti Classico was very good:
Back to Florence, exhausted!
Fascinating sights! That Hebrew Bible is really very early. The earliest surviving complete Hebrew Bibles are the ones known as the Aleppo (Syria) codex, part of which went missing (stolen?) a few decades ago, and the "Leningrad" (now St. Petersburg) codex. Respectively from the 11th and 12th centuries. I just read about these in Biblical Archeology Review. They were mentioned because a chunk of an earlier ms. has just been dated and seriously studied by scholars--containing Moses's and Miriam's Song of the Sea (from Exodus).
ReplyDeleteInteresting that the word B'reishit in big gold letters actually starts with what to us looks like a kaf. I don't know if this was an optional shape for a "bet" back then, or whether the person who was doing the big gold letters was perhaps not actually familiar with the Hebrew letters. I know this sounds heretical--to think that the more decorative parts of the codex were outsourced to a non-Jew; but of course, this isn't a torah scroll, "just" a Bible for study purposes or whatever.
I want some of that ravioli.
Ralph, we learned that just about all artwork was done by non-Jews as Jews could not join the guilds. We saw spectacular silver Torah crowns and cases, yads, and more, all of which were made to order by non-Jews. So your premise is likely correct.
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