Thesis: Material Witnesses: The Rothschild-Wittenberg Bible and Migrating Hebrew Manuscripts
Supervisor: Professor Alixe Bovey, FSA FRHistS Advisor: Dr Tom Nickson
Funded by the Consortium for the Humanities and Arts South-East England (CHASE)
This dissertation explores the movement of Hebrew manuscripts in relation to the migrations of Jewish communities in Europe due to persecution and expulsion. It focuses on a case study of one Hebrew manuscript that survives in two volumes, migrating from its origin in eastern France to new cities such as Mestre:
- Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum. MS 116 (Rothschild Pentateuch),
- Wittenberg, Stiftung Luthergedenkstätten. MS 2598 (Wittenberg Volume).
This manuscript was chosen because, in both its creation and its movement, it articulates the paths of migration taken by Jewish communities in Europe. The journey of each volume can be mapped through their material composition: dated bills of sale and owner inscriptions, the addition of leadpoint drawings and painted illustrations, as well as new bindings. The research method for this project is grounded in the archaeology of the book, namely in-person codicological studies of each volume. Using these first-hand examinations as a framework, this dissertation addresses pressing questions regarding how these volumes changed over time due to their movements and what these changes reveal about the impact of displacement on emigrant Jews and the communities to which they moved. What rests at the heart of this dissertation is a consideration of the enduring importance of Hebrew manuscripts beyond the moments they were made in the Middle Ages. For this reason, the final chapter considers the life of the Rothschild Pentateuch and Wittenberg Volume in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It demonstrates that Hebrew manuscripts continued to be moved and collected, participating in Jewish life and sustaining changes at the hands of different readers beyond the Middle Ages. In this way, it brings home the larger stakes of this dissertation regarding the position of migrating Hebrew manuscripts as material witnesses to different periods of Jewish history. The dissertation thus at once presents a fresh method for studying Hebrew manuscripts and fills a gap in scholarship on the Rothschild Pentateuch and Wittenberg Volume, which have not yet been fully examined in relation to their movements.
Education
2019: The Courtauld Institute of Art, MA History of Art (Distinction)
2018: Stanford University, BAH History of Art (First Class Honours)
2018: Stanford University, BA Italian Language and Literature (First Class Honours)
Teaching
Spring term 2026: The Courtauld, Associate Lecturer, “Art, Travel, and Imagination in the Middle Ages”
Spring term 2024: The Courtauld, Teaching Assistant, “Exhibiting Art”
Autumn term 2022: The Courtauld, Teaching Assistant, “Foundations in Art History”
Research and Travel Grants
2025: Medieval Academy of America Graduate Student Committee Grant for Innovation in Community Building and Professionalisation (in support of Tracing Jewish Histories)
2024: British Archaeological Association Travel Grant
2024: Etienne Gilson Dissertation Grant, Medieval Academy of America
2023: Samuel H. Kress Foundation Conference Travel Grant, International Center of Medieval Art
2022: British Archaeological Association Travel Grant
2021-Present: AHRC Doctoral Studentship, Consortium for the Humanities and Arts South-East England
Conferences and Workshops
Tracing Jewish Histories: The Long Lives of Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts, Judaica, and Architecture, The Courtauld Institute of Art and Case Western Reserve University, Co-organiser, 19-20 May 2025.
Jewish Women in Medieval Art, International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, Session Co-organiser and Chair, 8 May 2025.
“The Long Life of the Rothschild Pentateuch (J. Paul Getty Museum, MS 116)”, The Lives of Jewish Books II, Organisers: Diane Wolfthal and Adam Shear, Renaissance Society of America, Boston, 20 March 2025.
Afterlives and Legacies: Interventions in Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts, International Medieval Congress at Leeds, Session Co-organiser and Moderator, 1 July, 2024. Sponsored by the International Centre of Medieval Art.
“‘More Precious than Gold’: Hebrew Manuscripts in Cross-Cultural Contexts,” Books Across Borders, University of Kent, 14 September 2024.
Authority and Identity in the Middle Ages, The Courtauld Medieval Colloquium, Co-organiser, 15 March 2024.
“Exodus and Expulsion: The Barcelona Haggadah as a Material Witness to Sephardi Migration 1391-1459″, Emerging Researchers Symposium 2023: Movement and Transformations in the Making of Iberian and Latin American Art and Visual Cultures, Zurbarán Centre for Spanish and Latin American Art, Durham University, 22-23 June 2023.
“Material Witnesses: Examining the Migration of Hebrew Manuscripts in Relation to Jewish Displacement 1290-1550”, Lecture to the Department of Medieval Art & The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 3 May 2023.
“Mapping Migration: The Barcelona Haggadah (BL MS Add 14761) As A Material Witness to Sephardi Migration 1391-1459”, Mediterranean Seminar: Diasporic Legacies of the Mediterranean, University of Minnesota, 27-28 April 2023.
Honours and Awards
2022: Juan Facundo Riaño Essay Prize
2019: Association for Art History Postgraduate Dissertation Prize
2018: Albert Elsen Award in Art History, Stanford University
Research Interests
- Hebrew manuscripts from England, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy
- Jewish-Christian relationships and Jewish experience in the Middle Ages
- Jewish displacement and expulsion in western Europe 1290-1492
- Marginal images (marginalia) in Hebrew and Latin manuscripts
- Processes of Hebrew and Latin manuscript production and illumination in western Europe (13th – 15th centuries)
- Jewish persecution and anti-Jewish sentiment across historical periods
- Movement of people and books across time periods and geographies