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Olga Melasecchi, Amedeo Spagnoletto, and Doretta Davanzo Poli, Eds., Antique Roman Mappòt: the Precious Textile Archive of the Jewish Museum of Rome

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Olga Melasecchi, Amedeo Spagnoletto, and Doretta Davanzo Poli, Eds., Antique Roman Mappòt: the Precious Textile Archive of the Jewish Museum of Rome Olga Melasecchi, Amedeo Spagnoletto, and Doretta Davanzo Poli, eds., Antique Roman Mappòt: The Precious Textile Archive of the Jewish Museum of Rome. Rome: Campisano Editore, 2017. 321pp., €70 (hardback) Past the ticket office and souvenir shop, the Jewish of the collection, while the second part presents the Museum of Rome welcomes its visitors to the first individual entries of the two hundred fabrics. The edi- gallery, Il Guardaroba dei Tessuti. Italian for “The tors are Olga Melasecchi, Director of the Museo Ebraico Fabrics’ Wardrobe,” this room is assigned the more (curator at the time of publication), Chief Rabbi of formal “Textile Preservation Center” at the entrance. Florence Amedeo Spagnoletto, and Doretta Davanzo Along the room’s right wall is a magnificent array of Poli, formerly Professor of Textile Arts at the University meilim (Torah mantles) in shimmering silks and bro- of Udine and Venice and Director of the Library of cades, while in the center are showcases filled with Fabrics at Palazzo Grassi in Venice. mappòt, parokhot, and fascie (respectively large Torah The editors dedicated this book to Daniela Di Cas- wrappers, Torah ark curtains, and Torah binders). This tro, the late beloved director of Rome’s Museo Ebraico, striking space serves not only as a gallery, but also as who first initiated and planned the publication. In storage for hundreds of rare historic textiles, argu- 2008, she began cataloguing the mappòt while also ably the greatest pride of Rome’s Jewish community creating a working group to flank her in this ambitious (figs. 1 and 2). endeavor. Her presence is felt throughout the book: The Museo Ebraico has over 800 textiles, which “Her lamp does not go out at night,” a touching quote date from the late sixteenth to the late nineteenth from Proverbs (31:18), features as a dedication on the century. These extraordinary pieces come from the opening page. In her preface, Alessandra di Castro, Cinque Scole (Five Synagogues) of the Roman Ghetto Daniella Di Castro’s sister and director at the time of (1555–1870). They were donated by Roman Jewish publication, reminds us that The Treasures of the Jewish families over many centuries. Only a small fraction of Museum of Rome, Daniela’s outstanding general guide the objects is on display, and, while some are in use to the museum, was published three months after her in the city’s synagogues, the vast majority are stored untimely death in 2010.2 The guide’s section on the in the museum’s large metal chests. coat of arms is republished in this volume, and her In 2017, the beautifully produced Antique Roman publications (in particular Arte Ebraica a Roma e nel Mappòt opened the Guardaroba’s secret drawers to Lazio) are continuously referenced.3 share with international readers two hundred of the In his introduction, Rome’s Chief Rabbi, Riccardo most splendid mappòt.1 In this alone, this publication Di Segni, highlights direct Jewish female participation has fulfilled a service of inestimable value. Despite in the making of these objects at a time when papal being the first volume to be entirely devoted to a bans obligated ritual objects to be made only by male specific part of the museum’s collection, it does not Christian artisans.4 Because of papal restrictions on require readers to have previous knowledge about Jews prohibiting trade in new fabrics, women in the textiles and is in fact suited for both a lay and a spe- community used recycled fabrics to weave together cialized audience. It is available in both Italian and in new exquisite pieces. This offered a challenge to the English translation. Shulchan Aruch’s prohibition against adorning the The catalogue is clearly structured: the first part Torah with old fabrics along with a way of bypassing brings together a series of essays on different aspects papal restrictions on the right to artistic practice. 1 In 2016, Antiche Mappot Romane, the Italian edition was 3 For more on the coat of arms, see Daniela Di Castro, “Display published. of Pride: Coat of Arms of the Jews of Rome,” in Antique Roman 2 Daniela Di Castro, Treasures of the Jewish Museum of Rome: Mappòt, 61. Guide to the Museum and its Collection (Rome: Araldo De Luca Edi- For other publications see Daniela Di Castro, Arte ebraica a tore, 2010). Roma e nel Lazio (Rome: Fratelli Palombi Editori, 1994). 4 Riccardo Di Segni, “Introduction,” in Antique Roman Mappòt, 7. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 IMAGES Also available online—brill.com/ima DOI:10.1163/18718000-12340109 232 BOOK REVIEWS Fig. 1. Baraffael Mappah of Scola Nuova, 1708–1709, Rome, silk and satin embroidered with gold thread. Size: 61 × 292 cm. Museo Ebraico di Roma, Rome, cat.64 (inv.599 B). Photos by Araldo De Luca, Copyright Museo Ebraico di Roma. Fig. 2. Della Rocca Mappah of Scola Nuova, 1750–1751, Rome, velvet embroidered with gold, silver and polychrome thread; satin and linen. Museo Ebraico di Roma, Rome, cat. 106 (inv. 588 B). 63 × 236 cm. Photos by Araldo De Luca, Copyright Museo Ebraico di Roma. In the preface to the catalogue, Alessandra Di Castro, give his conclusions tangibility. In his third essay, he proudly reminds us that the mappòt are but “the tip of outlines the typographic styles of the inscriptions the iceberg” of what is one of the foremost collections embroidered in the mappòt from the sixteenth to of Jewish ceremonial textiles in the world.5 Indeed, the twentieth century.7 He demonstrates the value besides belonging to the history of Rome’s Jewish com- of inscriptions as historical sources by pointing, for munity, these artifacts are also a part of the broader example, to the centrality of women in the inscrip- Italian cultural heritage, and as such they must be tions found on the earliest mappòt, which is somewhat taught. She whets our appetite by announcing that eclipsed by the prevalence of men’s names in later this is but the first in a series of specialized publica- examples. The role of inscriptions as storytellers tions with catalogues devoted to Rome’s collections of also emerges in the extraordinary circumstances and Ketubbot, silver, and Esther Scrolls to follow. dramatic events occasionally alluded to in the embroi- In his first two instructive essays, Amedeo Spagno- dered Hebrew letters. letto, rabbi and scribe, goes back to the basics: What Doretta Davanzo Poli, to whom Daniela Di Castro is a scribe? What are the rules that govern the making entrusted the examinations of over two hundred map- of the Sefer Torah? What is the difference between pòt, wrote two essays that are, as would be expected mappah and meil?6 These questions work under the from a world-renowned textiles scholar, the most fundamental premise that, to understand fully the specialized and technical, perhaps apt for a more mappah’s function, the reader must first comprehend expert reader.8 Davanzo Poli avows that “through the Torah as a physical object. Spagnoletto’s frequent the preserved cloths one can retrace the history of references to primary textual sources, particularly the Western art.” She proceeds to describe in detail the Babylonian Talmud and Maimonides’s Mishne Torah, techniques, stitches, and decorative effects of many 5 Alessandra Di Castro, “Preface,” in Antique Roman Mappòt, 9. 8 Doretta Davanzo Poli, “Praying with the Needle: Artists, Crafts- 6 Amedeo Spagnoletto, “In the Heart of the Mappah: The Torah men and the Stylistic Evolution of the Roman Mappot,” in Antique Scrolls,” in Antique Roman Mappòt, 15–19; “Adornments: Dressing Roman Mappòt, 25–32; and “The Fabrics of the Mappot of the Jew- the Torah Scrolls,” in Antique Roman Mappòt, 21–23. ish Museum of Rome: Styles and Techniques,” in Antique Roman 7 Amedeo Spagnoletto, “The Mappot Inscriptions of the Jewish Mappòt, 33–42. Museum of Rome,” in Antique Roman Mappòt, 55–60..
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