Illuminated Ketubah, recording the marriage of the groom Yitzchak son of Raphael Avshalom Russo "Demitkare" Mirkado, with the bride Esther daughter of Nissim Moshe Yosef Russo. Kastoria, Greece, Tamuz 1831.
Illuminated Ketubah, on parchment, in colors of red, blue, white and black, in a style which was widespread in the Ottoman Empire and Thessaloniki in the late 18th through mid-19th century.
Upper margins are cut and decorated with floral motifs. Designed as two gates: the Ketubah text is written in the right gate with signatures of three witnesses: Meir Alkalai, Moshe Ibn Vinishti and David Bachar Yitzchak Eliyahu. The "Tena'im" are written in the left gate, with additional signatures by the same witnesses. In the outer margins, on upper part, above the gates and between them appear various blessings.
In the 16th century, the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II granted the Jews expelled from Spain the permission to settle in the Ottoman Empire, and some of them arrived in Kastoria. While some Sephardi congregations were absorbed by the Romaniote congregations, Jews in Kastoria changed the nature of the local congregation which slowly became Sephardi.
A rare Ketubah of the Sephardi congregation in Kastoria. Known are two more Sephardi Ketubot from Kastoria, both in the collection of JTS in New-York.
Approx. 56X44 cm. Fair condition. Tears, mainly at margins, with damage to text. Creases and folding marks. Stains. Some tears restored with pasted paper and with paint. Framed. Unexamined out of frame.
Literature: Ketubot Meutarot [Illuminated Ketubot], Prof. Shalom Sabar. In: Yehudei Sepharad ba-imperia ha-ottomanit [Sephardi Jews in the Ottoman Empire], Israel Museum, 1989, pp. 219-237; plates 54-55.
Provenance: Collection of Willy Lindwer.