Sutro Exhibit Book Lists

All the World is a Stage: Performance, Theatre, and Culture

Before the Summer of Love: From Alchemy to Astrology

Caricature in Politics and Culture

Collected Visions

Egypt through the Eyes of Sutro

Fashion Through the Ages

Finding Women in the Archive

From Earthquakes to Epidemics: Historic Disasters

Golden Gate Park

Headlines of History

Hebraica

  • #26. Old Testament. Esther. Hebrew. Not dated. Begins with: “ Va-yehi bi-yeme ahashverosh…” In black ink on vellum with square characters with tagin and decorations.
  • #130. Moses ben Maimon. Mishneh Torah. Not dated. Begins with: “inyan elu ha-halakhot leda din sheluho shel adam.”
  • #30. Old Testament. Esther. Hebrew. Not dated. Begins: “Va-yehi bi-yeme ahashverosh…” With tagin in black with red leather.
  • #132. Moses ben Maimon. Mishneh Torah. [1383 A.D.]
  • #151. Salomon ben-Abraham Urbino. Urbino was a Jewish writer who flourished in 1480, and authored this lexicon on the synonyms of the Old Testament. This example was written in 1590 in Italian cursive characters by Abraham ben Meshulam in black ink on buff paper and bound in parchment. Contains notes in Italian by censors.
  • Old Testament. Pentateuch. Hebrew. Not dated, but probably sometime written sometime in the eighteenth century. The name of the copyist is given as Shamarya ben Joseph ben Shalom. Contains Aramaic translation by Onkelos and Arabic Tafsīr by R. Saadya after each verse.
  • #132 – in far off case by Sutro bath picture. Mishneh Torah (Yad ha-Hazakah) [1383 A.D] Several inscriptions record the sale of this manuscript. Black ink on buff paper with chapter indicants in colored inks. Oriental rabbinic characters.
  • Cardoso, Isaac, [1603-1683]. Las Excelencias de los Hebreos. Amsterdam: avid de Castro Tartas, 1679. Cardoso was born in Portugal and was a doctor and philosopher. Las excelencias de los Hebreos is on one level a superb defense of Judaism and the Jewish people, and on another level, a justification written by Cardosa on his choice to live his life as a Jew – he didn’t discover his Jewish heritage until he was middle aged. The title-page contains a woodcut showing a hand gathering flowers, with the motto: ‘el que me esparsio me recogera’ (He who has scattered me will gather me).
  • Grammaire De Kimhi. Venice: Daniel Bomberg, 1546. In 1553, Hebrew presses in Venice were closed by Papal decree and Hebrew books publicly burned in cities across Italy. At the same time, it was in the sixteenth century that many classics of the Jewish tradition were either printed for the first time or received the form by which they are known today.
  • Undated Yemenite talisman to ward off the “evil eye”. The Hamsa on this fragment, the palm-shaped amulet, has historically been a sign in defense against the evil eye. The open hand, particularly the open right hand, has also been used to represent blessings, power, and strength. The evil eye is a curse believed to be cast by a malevolent glare, which is usually given to a person when they are unaware. Talismans created to protect against the evil are also often referred to as “evil eyes.” The hamsa’s path into Jewish culture, and its popularity particularly in Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewish communities can be traced through its use in Islam in North African and Middle Eastern Muslim countries. The symbol of the hand appears in Kabbalistic manuscripts and amulets, doubling as the Hebrew letter “Shin”, the first letter of “Shaddai”, one of the names referring to God.
  • Incantation for pregnancy, undated.
  • #75. Levi ben Gershon, 1288-1344. [Commentary on Exodus] [1330 A.D.]. Manuscript differs from the printed edition. Written in Hebrew, in Spanish cursive characters, written on paper and vellum, and bound in leather. Begins with: “Ve-eleh shemot ad va-yelekh ish…
  • #76. Moses ben Nahman [ca. 1195-1270]. Perush ha-torah, [1514 A.D.], Pesaro. This printed commentary, in Hebrew, of Moses ben Nahman’s (Nahmanides) on the Pentateuch was printed in Pesaro and is possibly the first printed Soncino edition.
  • #70. Bible. O.T. Jeremiah. Hebrew. No date. Begins with: “Niru lakhem nir…” Written in square characters with vowels and accent marks on vellum. Contains some massoretic notes and glosses from Midrash in the margins. Ornaments at chapter headings and written in a beautiful Medieval hand. The book of Jeremiah, also called The Prophecy of Jeremias, is one of the major prophets from the Old Testament. Had a ministry before and after the siege and capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 583 BC.
  • #146. [Midot Rabi Yishma ‘el], not dated. Begins with: “Rabi yishma’ el omer bi-shelosh ‘esreh midot…” A treatise on the thirteen hermeneutic rules of Rabbi Ishmael. Written in small oriental rabbinic characters in black ink on buff paper.
  • #1. Old Testament. Pentateuch in Hebrew. Not dated. The second person who cataloged this collection believed this scroll to have been an autograph of Maimonides.

Images of the Industrial Revolution: From the Crystal Palace to the Locomotive, 1851-1895

Into the West

Images of Mexico

Land of the Unexpected

Nesting: A Study in Human Dwellings

Photography and the Archive

Transportation

War and the Archive