Joel Meets Johannes: A Fifteenth-Century Jewish-Christian Collaboration in Manuscript Illumination

"Joel Meets Johannes: A Fifteenth-Century Jewish-Christian Collaboration in Manuscript Illumination." This study addresses a rare phenomenon in the production of Hebrew illuminated manuscripts, one which has not been given sufficient attention, the working relationship between a Jewish artist and a German manuscript atelier who joined to produce at least two lavishly decorated Hebrew manuscripts: the division of the work between the two and within the atelier, and the way in which this work was carried out. The protagonists of this article are the scribe and artist Joel ben Simeon, the German artist Johannes Bamler, the scribe Meir Jaffe, and Jacob Matathiah, a wealthy Jew from the city of Ulm who brought the first three together.