The Song of Solomon a Book of Love Jennifer Baldwin and Susan Thomas

The Song of Solomon A book of love Jennifer Baldwin and Susan Thomas In 2017 a particularly exquisite ‘I sat down under his shadow volume was received by the with great delight’ Baillieu Library for the Rare Books ‘And his banner over me was Collection: a 1930 edition of the love’ biblical Song of Solomon, designed ‘My beloved is gone down into by Polish-Israeli artist Zeev Raban his garden’ (1890–1970). Also known as the Song ‘But I found him whom my soul of Songs or Canticle of Canticles, this loveth’ is one of the five books of wisdom in ‘For love is as strong as death’ the Hebrew scriptures, and is closely ‘Many waters cannot quench associated with the Jewish feast of love, neither can the floods Passover. It was traditionally read drown it’.3 on the eighth day of Passover as an historical allegory, beginning with the The artwork Exodus from Egypt and concluding This particular edition is of special with the coming of the Messiah. interest, not least for its exquisite There have been many differing craftsmanship and intriguing interpretations of the Song of history. Bound in an embossed Solomon, which is believed to interpretations see it as ‘an anthology faux-leather cover inlaid with a either have been written by the of love poems’ expressing human copper-relief centrepiece depicting biblical king Solomon, or to be emotions and relationships, and the Queen of Sheba (pictured left), about him. Down the centuries, the affirming human love and sexuality.1 the volume immediately stands book has been viewed variously as It has often been asked why a book out from those shelved around it, an historical allegory, with the man of love poems has been accepted into beckoning the reader to explore the as God and the woman as Israel, the canon of the Jewish and Christian artwork contained within. As well or as the development of spiritual scriptures. Some commentators as a meditation on the biblical love union with God, with the bride have suggested that its attribution poetry of the Song of Songs, the book as the individual soul who desires to Solomon and its use on particular reflects the aspirations of a fledgling God, and the bridegroom as God. religious feast-days meant that a Israeli art movement, skilfully melded The book is also important in the religious reinterpretation of the with the fluid natural forms of Christian tradition, and is part of the text was necessary in order to make German Jugendstil (Art Nouveau). Christian biblical canon. The great this usage in Jewish and Christian Zeev Raban, born in Lodz in protestant theologian Martin Luther liturgy more acceptable.2 Whatever 1890, trained as a painter, sculptor suggested that it was an allegory of the interpretation, the language is and decorative artist in his native the relationship between God and beautiful, as the following excerpts Poland. His distinctive artistic style Solomon, whereas some modern show: was further shaped by study at Jennifer Baldwin and Susan Thomas The Song of Solomon 55 Previous page: The Song of Solomon in coloured plates by Zeev Raban ‘Bezalel’ Jerusalem, third improved edition, Jerusalem: The Song of Songs Publishing Co., 1930: front cover. Bequest of Dr Gertrude Spencer 2005, Baillieu Library Rare Books Collection, University of Melbourne. Below: The Song of Solomon: title pages in English and Hebrew, showing the lion and deer. several major academies in Germany, Mandate of Palestine attracted in which he uses a lion and a deer to France and Belgium at the height artists fired with a sense of romantic portray the themes of sensual love as of the Art Nouveau period. In 1912 nationalism, who saw the opportunity celebrated in this particular book of he was invited by Boris Schatz, to create a Jewish art tradition, the Hebrew Bible.5 founder of the newly established born of the soil of their religious It seems that Raban began his Bezalel Academy of Arts and homeland.4 Raban was familiar with series of biblical watercolour paintings Design in Jerusalem, to take up a artworks in the European Gothic some time before 1918. They first teaching position, firstly as head of and Renaissance traditions, Persian appeared in book form in 1923 in the copper-relief department. The miniature paintings, and artists of a production by the Berlin Hasefer Bezalel Academy was a product the Jugendstil, which he drew upon publishing house, possibly because at of the Zionist movement that was and fused into a style distinctively his that time Israel lacked the printing precipitated by a growing anti- own. His works are recognisable for technology needed to replicate the Semitism in late 19th-century their idealised renderings and highly illustrations. Under the English title Europe. As well as providing a Jewish decorative aesthetic, as epitomised Song of Solomon, a second edition was homeland remote from persecution, in his outstanding sequence of printed by the Ariel Press in Jerusalem the newly established British illustrations for the Song of Songs, for the Song of Songs Publishing Company in 1928, followed by a third, ‘improved’, edition in 1930.6 The 1930 version bears a printed dedication: ‘To Professor Boris Schatz, founder and manager of the “Bezalel” Arts and Crafts School in Jerusalem, with friendship and veneration. Zeev Raban’. The Baillieu Library’s copy is from this third edition. Interestingly, the book reads from left to right in the European, rather than Hebrew, style. Its 62 unnumbered leaves comprise successive double-page openings, each illustrating a short verse from the Song of Songs. On the right- hand page is a full-size coloured lithographic plate with the Hebrew text below; on the left is the corresponding text from the English 56 University of Melbourne Collections, issue 22, June 2018 The Song of Solomon: illustration accompanying Chapter 4, verses 1–6: ‘Behold, thou art fair, my love: behold, thou art fair; thine eyes are as doves behind they veil: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that lie along the side of Mount Gilead …’ Revised Version of the Bible. The effect is that of a modern medieval manuscript, with illuminated script highlighted in gold and silver enclosed by vine-entwined woodcut borders. Raban’s illustrations reflect the erotic themes of the text, and promote the new Israeli homeland as an idyll by placing the embracing couples in a vernacular landscape of desert scenes and palm trees, echoing the philosophy of the Bezalel school. The images range from beautifully composed pastoral scenes, to exquisitely rendered lovers embracing under a blossom tree, framed by vibrant borders of pinks, reds and oranges. While the models remain chaste, some illustrations have a restrained erotic charge, such as the plate showing a man embracing his lover from behind, coupling his hands around her breasts. Credit for the coloured lithographic plates is ascribed to ‘Editions Artistiques de Paris’, suggesting that the illustrations were printed in France, then tipped into the pages in Israel. As well as influencing the inside of the book, Raban’s design ethic was integral to the binding, creating a holistic interrelationship between inner and outer, emulating the Arts and Crafts approach to the object conceived and executed as an integrated whole. Jennifer Baldwin and Susan Thomas The Song of Solomon 57 Right: Dr Gertrude ‘Trudy’ Spencer on the occasion of her graduation with a Master of Arts, University of Melbourne, 1992. Below: Bookplate of Dr Gertrude Spencer, pasted inside the front cover of The Song of Solomon. Provenance ‘Ted’ Spencer), emigrated to Sydney there were more than 2,000 books, The provenance of this volume in 1947 with the support of Trudy’s including a wide range of novels and reveals an interesting chronicle about uncle, Leopold. Trudy’s parents popular non-fiction. Some are now in an alumna and benefactor of the followed them in 1951.7 the University of Melbourne Library; University of Melbourne. Trudy and Ted’s marriage did not 37 of the most significant volumes The donor of this book was last, and they divorced in 1957, just were added to the Rare Books Dr Gertrude Spencer (née as Trudy had finished her medical Collection. Rabinowitsch, 1922–2005), known as studies at the University of Sydney The diversity of Trudy’s collection Trudy, who was born in Vienna, the and her internship in Murwillumbah. speaks loudly of her academic, only child of Jewish parents. Given After undertaking residencies in spiritual and intellectual interests, as the political situation with the rise of psychiatry in the USA, she came to well as her medical and psychiatric the Austrian Nazi party, the family Melbourne in 1961, beginning her training and work as a Jungian emigrated to Palestine in 1936. Trudy career as a psychiatrist with young therapist. She undertook a Master married in Palestine in 1944; she and offenders by working at the Children’s of Arts degree at the University her husband, Tibor Bandler (who Clinic in Batman Avenue, part of the of Melbourne in Middle-Eastern later changed his name to Theodore Department of Mental Health. studies and Syriac, graduating at the Trudy meticulously documented age of 70. The acknowledgements in her life, her travels and her work— her Master’s thesis,8 thanking several in scrapbooks, photograph albums academics who guided her research, and movie film. Her wide-ranging particularly her supervisor, ‘to the interests were reflected in her memory of my respected and beloved extensive library of books and teacher, Dr James Fraser’, show collection of documentary films her commitment to the pursuit of and cassette recordings. Her book knowledge. Trudy died in 2005 at the collection covered biblical history, age of 82, having outlived both her Christian faith, Classics, Judaism, husbands, Ted Spencer and George Islam, comparative religion, Semitic Pappas.

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