Beyond textual analysis: Diagrams in Jewish and Hebrew medieval manuscripts

Session Submission Type: Panel Session

Abstract

In recent years, the academic trend known as "the visual turn" in historical studies has brought to light the significance of visual sources – art, diagrams, and other visual representations. Art historians have been showing a growing interest in exploring the visual language of knowledge found in art forms that were previously overlooked within the realm of traditional art history. More generally, historians are increasingly delving into the non-verbal aspects of cultural products to complement traditional historical descriptions. By incorporating material and visual content that goes beyond written texts, scholars aim to provide a more comprehensive understanding of historical events and contexts. One notable development is the greater recognition of the intricate cultural production found in manuscripts, particularly regarding diagrams and illustrations. This emphasis challenges the notion that diagrams merely serve as supplements to written texts.
The proposed panel will offer three independent studies related to these methodological questions.
Dr. Judith Weiss will present a fresh approach to Sefer Yetzirah through the lens of Genre. Focusing on some of this treatise’s enigmatic features, mainly – the extensive and repetitive lists of both physical and abstract elements, she will argue that Sefer Yetzirah was originally based on descriptions of early medieval diagrams. These textual paragraphs were eventually copied without the diagrams, thus forming the text of Sefer Yetzirah known to us.
Dr. Gal Sofer will focus on the second book of the Summa Sacre Magice, written by the Christian magician Berengar Ganell, with the aim of tracing its origins to Jewish sources and pointing at its relationship with the Alfonsine Liber Razielis. Thus, the Tabula's dual significance as both a celestial map and an astro-magical instrument, influenced by but superior to its textual source, will be illustrated.
Dr. Sivan Gottlieb will discuss brain diagrams in Hebrew medical manuscripts, focusing on a unique diagram from 15th century Italy, elucidating the process of transition from verbal text to visual representation and observing the way each of these diagrams created a new forms of texts.

Sub Unit

• Medieval and Early Modern Jewish History, Literature, and Culture

Chair

• Rivka Elitzur-Leiman

Individual Presentations

• Diagram, Text, Context: The Genre of Sefer Yetzirah - Judith Weiss, Ben Gurion University

• “Ecce formationem saeculi tibi monstro”: A Christian Magical Diagram and Its Jewish Sources - Gal Sofer, Ben-Gurion Univeristy of the Negev

• "זו הצורה": Brain Diagrams in Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts and Their Visual and Textual Sources - Sivan Gottlieb, UGR

Zoom Host

• Zoom Host 13