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The Theatrical Figures in Tyrnau's Illustrated Book of Customs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2009

Ahuva Belkin
Ahuva Belkin
Affiliation:
Ahuva BelkinLectures in the Theatre Arts Department, Tel Aviv University.
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Extract

The late fifteenth century and the whole of the sixteenth century were dark years for the Jewish people, and the Jews of Italy did not escape the grim fate of their brothers. Old decrees were resuscitated and reinforced by a succession of newly-passed harsh measures. Expulsion, forced wearing of the humiliating Jewish badge, censorship of books, the burning of the Talmud and pogroms inspired and led by zealous Christians, were daily occurrences. It is during those tragic years that an astonishing phenomenon emerges on the Italian scene: Jews engage in the performing arts with passion and play an important role in the development of spectacles and shows. They do so in defiance of internal opposition; the fierce objection of Rabbis, ever since Talmudic times, to any form of theatrical entertainment, had never abated.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , Summer 1988 , pp. 89 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1988

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References

Notes

1. On rabbinical opposition to theatrical entertainment, see: Ernst, S., ‘Texte und Quellen zur Geschichte von Theater Kurzweil und Masken festen bei den Juden’, Archiv für die Geschichte Theaters und Drama, I ed. Shatzky, J. (Wilno, 1930), 24. (Yiddish).Google Scholar

2. The theatrical customs related to Purim are described in: Sziper, J., Geschichte fur idizerteater – Kunst und drama, 3 vols. (Warszawa, Kultur-Liga, 1929), I, 80ff.Google Scholar; Zinberg, S., ‘Purim Spiel at Different Times’, The Zukunft, 28 (1923), 72.Google Scholar See also: Shmeruk, C., Yiddish Biblical Plays 1697– 1750 (Jerusalem: Publications of Israel Academy of Science and Humanities, 1979)Google Scholar; Davidson, I., Parody in Jewish Literature (New York: AMS Press Inc. 1964).Google Scholar

3. E. G. Guglielmo da Pesaro was an extremely popular dance master in the courtly circle of Lorenzo the Magnificent at Florence. He wrote the first modern treatise on dancing: Trattato dell' Arte dell Ballo. See: Roth, Cecil, History of the Jews of Italy (Philadelphia, 1946), p. 196.Google Scholar

4. In 1531, the Jews of Venice put on a ‘splendid comedy’. Around 1560, a grandiose production of Esther was staged jointly by the poet Solomon Usque and Lazaro di Gratian Levy. At the request of Christian noblemen the play was performed again in 1591. See: Roth, C., ‘Salusque Luitano’, JQR, n.s. XXXIV (1943/1944), 65–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5. Simonsohn, S., History of the Jewish in the Duchy of Mantua (Jerusalem: Kiryath Sefer Ltd. 1977), p. 484.Google Scholar

6. D'Ancona, Alessandro. Origini Del Teatro Italiano, vol. II (1881: Roma, Bardi Editore, 1966), p. 438.Google Scholar

7. Birnbaum, Eduard, Jüdische Musiker am Hofe von Mantua von 11542–1628 (Wien, 1893), p. 12ffGoogle Scholar; Schirmann, J., ‘Theater and Music in the Italian Ghetti Between the Sixteenth and Eighteenth Centuries’, Zion, 39 (1964), 69ff.Google Scholar

8. See: Sommi, Leone de', Quattro Dialoghi in Materia di Rappresentazioni Sceniche, ed. Marotti, Ferruccio (Milano: Edizioni II Polifilo, 1968).Google Scholar ‘Introduzione’, pp. xv–lxxiii.

9. Bodleian Library, Sm. 4o Opp. 4o. 1004 (1), see Coweley, A. E., A Concise Catalogue of the Hebrew, Printed Books in Bodleian Library (Oxford, rep. 1971).Google Scholar Rabbi Eisak Tyrnau, a pupil of Rabbi Solomon from Austria, worked in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century in the city of Tyrnau, west Hungary. His major contribution was a book of Ashkenazi Jewish customs, which he collected from Bohemia, Moravia, Germany and Poland, and edited in Hebrew. See Spitser, S. I., Sefer Haminhagim Le-Rabenu Eisac Tyrnau (Jerusalem, 1979), pp. 13ff. (Hebrew).Google Scholar

10. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries no less than forty editions of this book were published in European Jewish communities. Its woodcuts were used to illustrate other books. See Chone Shmeruk, ‘Ha-Iyurim min ha-Minhagim be-Yiddish Venezia 1593, behadpassot chozrot bedefussei Prague bamea ha-17’ (The Illustrations to ‘Minhagim’ in Yiddish Venice 1593 in reprints from Prague in the fifteenth century), Studies in Bibliography and Booklore 15 (1984), p. 52.Google Scholar

11. Epstein, M., ‘Simon Levy Ginzburg's Illustrated Customal (Minhagim-Book) of Venice, 1593, and its travels’, Proceedings of the fifth World Congress of Jewish Studies IV (Jerusalem, 1973), p. 209.Google Scholar

12. See Belkin, Ahuva, ‘Habit de fou in Purim Spiel?’ Assaph 2 (1985), pp. 40–56.Google Scholar E. Welsford points out that in Germany the carnival plays were affected by the prevailing fashionable taste for motley and that the actors often were disguised as fools. See Welsford, Enid, The Fool. His Social and Literary History (London: Faber & Faber, 1935), p. 232.Google Scholar

13. Throughout the sixteenth century and even later, this appearance of Pantalone occurs in numerous paintings, woodcuts and engravings.

14. According to Nicoll the woodcut is not an original illustration for this book and does not represent Arlecchino but Zanni, who was a prototype for certain, specific servants such as Francatrippa. Nicoll, A., The World of Harlequin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963), pp. XII, 82ff.Google Scholar

15. For such a merchant's garment see Vecellio, C., Vecellio's Renaissance Costume Book (New York: Dover Publications, 1977), fig. 89.Google Scholar

16. Giacomo Franco's (1556–1620) engravings describe everyday life in the city of Venice. His best known book is Habiti delle Donne Veneziana. See Benezit, E., Dictionnaire Critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs (Librairie Grund, 1966), p. 379.Google Scholar

17. For example, see Nagler, A. M., Theatre Festivals of the Medici1539–1637 (Yale University Press, 1964), pp. 9–10, 67, 89.Google Scholar

18. Cavicchi, Adriano, ‘La scenografia dell' Aminta nella tradizione scenografica pastorale del secolo XVI’, Studi sul Teatre Veneto Fra Rinascimento ed eta Barocca, ed. Muraro, M. T. (Firenze: Leo Olschki editore, 1971), pp. 53–72.Google Scholar

19. D'Ancona, Alessandro, Origini Del Teatro Italiano, vol. II (1881: Roma, Bardi Editore, 1966), p. 438.Google Scholar

20. See Rossi, Vittorio, Batista Guarini ed Il Pastor Fido (Turin, 1889), pp. 314–17.Google Scholar Cavicchi cites a few examples of this widespread method: for instance, the engravings of Filli di Sciro by G. Bonarelli (Ferrara, 1607). (‘La scenografia’ figs. 48–52). The engravings present an axiomatic set of recuring motifs – the short camicia, the fur lying casually on the shoulder and the wreath.

21. Sommi, Leone de'. Quattro Dialoghi in Materia di Rappresentazioni ScenicheGoogle Scholar, ed. Marotti, Ferruccio. This text is translated in Allardyce Nicoll, The Development of the Theatre (1927, London: George G. Harrap & Co.; 1970), pp. 253–278.Google Scholar

22. In 1586 De' Sommi was asked to write an intermezzo for the play. See Neri, A., ‘Gli intermezzi del “Pastor Fido”’, Giornale Storico della letteratura italiana IX (1888), p. 405.Google Scholar

23. D'Ancona, , Origini, vol. II, p. 424.Google Scholar

24. One of Scala's scenarios, The Comical, Pastoral, and Tragical Events, is referred to as ‘opera mixta’ (mixed work). See Salerno, H. F., trans. Scenarios of the Commedia dell'arte: Flaminio Scala's Il Teatro delle favole rappresentative (New York: New York Univ. Press, 1967), p. 321.Google Scholar

25. See for example the illustration now in Rome, Biblioteca Corsiniana, which depicts a pastoral play being performed by a commedia dell'arte troop. Apollonio, Mario, Storia del Teatro Italiano, vol. II (Firenze: G. C. Sansoni, 1940), Tav. XVIII.Google Scholar

26. Duchartre, P., The Italian Comedy (New York: Dover, 1966), pp. 88–91.Google Scholar

27. Epstein, M., ‘Simon Levy Ginzburg's Illustrated Customal’.Google Scholar

28. According to C. Shmeruk the book first appeared in Venice in 1589. See ‘Defussei Yiddish b'italia’ (Yiddish printing in Italy), Italia (1982), p. 127.Google Scholar

29. Di Gara used typographic material mainly from the shut-down press of Daniel Bomberg; however, he is known to have possessed other materials such as title pages from books printed in Mantua. See Izhak Yudlov, ‘Introduction’ in Habermann, A. M., Giovanni di Gara Printer, Venice 1564–1610 (Tel Aviv: Habermann Institute for Literary Research, 1982), p. XI.Google Scholar

30. For details on the Sullam family, see Simonshon, S., History of the Jews, p. 650.Google Scholar

31. As a case in point, Epstein cites the illustration that depicts the Hanukkah celebration lighting candles on a seven-branched Menorah (Candelabrum), while the Talmudic, ‘Menahot’ tractate specifies that such a lamp may be used only in the Temple. ‘Simon Levy Ginzburg's Illustrated Customal’, p. 208.Google Scholar