Ambrosiana
READING ROOM CLOSURE FROM SEPTEMBER 24 TO 29
Reading room closed from September 24 to 29 included
24/09/2025-29/09/2025
In memory of Luisella Mortara Ottolenghi and Raffaella Mortara
curated by Anna Linda Callow and Pier Francesco Fumagalli
Italian translation by Erica Baricci
Ed. G.A.M. Rudiano (Brescia) – Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milano 2021
The Meshal ha-Qadmoni Ambrosian manuscript X 112 Sup. was written by Shemu’el Sofer (‘scribe’) named Zilmein, the son of Barukh in Brescia (Lombardy, northern Italy) in 1483 for his private student Barukh, son of Shemu’el of Mortara. Though produced in Italy, the codex is inscribed in an Ashkenazic current semi–cursive script by an immigrant professional scribe from Germany. The painted pages result from “a unique process in which the scribe was also the illustrator who added the illustrations while copying, page by page, at the same time adjusting the layout copying to his illustration.” (Malachi Beit-Arié). “It may be said, in summary, that the book, with its stories, its social criticism, its human wisdom and its scientific and pseudo-scientific treatises, constitutes a universal and timeless document that appealed to generations of Ashkenazi Jews – even in northern Italy” (Simona Gronemann).
22 novembre 2021, Sala delle Accademie E.R. Galbiati
h 15.00 Saluto del Prefetto dell’Ambrosiana, monsignor Marco Ballarini
Guido Ottolenghi, La cultura onora il ricordo
Anna Linda Callow, Novelle ebraiche per studio e per diletto
Erica Baricci, Favole antiche per giovani d’oggi
h 16.15 Conclusioni di monsignor Pier Francesco Fumagalli
Reading room closed from September 24 to 29 included
From 18.00 to 19.30 (last admission) entrance to the Art Gallery and Crypt at the special price of €3.00
