Codex page

The most ornate piece of codex ever to remain in Hungary. Verses 7-39 of the first book of Chronicles can be seen on one side of the parchment delineated in what is known as micrographical imagery. Illustrators used micrographics to circumvent the Jewish prohibition of rendering humans in art. One can however distinctly identify the silhouettes of figures from the letters. The illustrator thus avoided drawing and they wrote instead, and the lines, by “pure coincidence” of course, formed a human figure. Eve offers an apple to Adam whose one arm and one leg remain invisible. The tree on which the serpent is crawling up can be seen in between the two of them. The first column of the biblical script is missing, so is the side of the image. Two of the original three columns have remained on the other side. The corners of the parchment are cut off and traces of folding can be seen along the sides, this implies that the original codex was cut into pieces at some point and its pieces were used to reinforce the binding boards of other books. According to some, the original document was destroyed in 1686 when Christian troops recaptured Buda from the Ottomans and set the homes of the Ottoman-allied Jews on fire. Others think that the codex was originally part of the famous Corvina-collection of King Mathias’ court.