Inventory of the earliest known wrappers, all from Dubrovnik or Rome, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

A sample of wrappers from Rome in silk with sumptuous embroidery, seventeenth to nineteenth centuries

Some typical wimple-type linen binders from Germany, sixteenth to nineteenth centuries

The following list of binders includes technical data and details of the customary embroidered or painted inscription (the techniques of painting or embroidery are never mixed on any individual binder). The whole inscription is provided unless text is missing or illegible. The main text, which is inscribed in large letters, includes details of the baby boy's name, his father's name, and the date of his birth, as listed below. It is followed by a blessing taken from the blessing recited during the circumcision ceremony: ‘With God's help may he grow up to observe the Torah, enter into marriage, and perform good deeds.’ The word ‘Torah’ is embellished by a Torah scroll, or a boy raising a Torah scroll. The word ḥ upah, meaning wedding canopy, is often embellished by a canopy, an image of the wedding ceremony, or a star representing the wedding stone. The position of illustrations embellishing the dedicatory texts is cued with superior numbers, and a description of these illustrations is given in the corresponding numbered notes below the English translation of the dedication. The main text is sometimes accompanied by supplementary texts related to the embellishments (see, for example, no. 5 below); these are inscribed in smaller, usually cursive, letters.

1

Date: 1590

Dimensions (cm): 13.5 × 339; beginning missing

Colour of silk thread: Greenish yellow

Joining of strips: Joining stitch

Finishing of borders: Invisible stitch

Embroidery stitches: Stem

Lettering: In initial-panel style: unfilled outline; ascender in the letter lamed turned down

… son of Menahem Bacharach, may he live a long and joyous life and may he see only blessings and good things, amen, selah, was born in good fortune on the New Moon of Heshvan, in the year 5350 [29 October 1590].

Collection: Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, no. 19.14.22, from the genizah in Westheim, Germany