Beschreibung:

Marriage contract for Mordecai, son of Shlomo Hayyim Tsoref, and Hanna, daughter of Eliyahu Shabtai Castilnovo, in Hebrew, illustrated manuscript on parchment [Italy (Siena), early 1780s (probably 1782)] Large single sheet, 23 long lines in square script, the opening letters in larger script, endorsed at foot in a small and cursive hand, the text within ornamental green brushstrokes, a full decorated border of stylised blue leaves set against central bars with urns mounted in their bodies, the foliage enclosing a Hebrew inscription in red, all above a large miniature of the wedding itself (the groom in yellow robes, the bride in a pink dress, the couple and the rabbi beneath a canopy, all with a crowd in rich drapery, two small diamond-shaped miniatures of half-length female figures, stains in places (with central parts of document slightly darkened), small hole in centre with damage to one or two characters, some small flaking from paint, folds, cockling to foot and marks on reverse from having once been pasted to a card or board The name of the bride’s family, Castilnovo, suggests that they were refugees from Segovia in Spain who had fled the expulsion in 1492. The bride is also given a nickname here, in fact her Italian name, probably ‘Paciencia’.