Herlingen, Aaron Wolff (Schreiber) of Gewitsch
HERLINGEN, AARON WOLFF (Schreiber) OF GEWITSCH
HERLINGEN, AARON WOLFF (Schreiber) OF GEWITSCH (c. 1700-c. 1760), Austrian scribe, illuminator, one of the most gifted and prolific of the school of Jewish manuscript artists who flourished in Central Europe in the 18th century. His work developed over the years, and he was especially distinguished as a calligrapher. Born probably in Gewitsch, his family came to Moravia following the expulsion of the Jews from Vienna in 1669–70. Herlingen became active in the field of Hebrew manuscript production when he was a young man, and the earliest known manuscript he wrote and decorated, Seder Birkat ha-Mazon, is dated 1719–20. Herlingen produced his early manuscripts in Pressburg (today Bratislava), and later he settled in Vienna. His reputation increased quickly and apparently with the help of an assistant he hired, Herlingen carried out many commissions for the Viennese court Jews and other wealthy families, as well as some non-Jewish clients. Herlingen specialized in richly illustrated manuscripts of the Passover Haggadah and Grace after Meals (in color and grisaille), though he also produced illuminated manuscripts of other texts, such as the Esther scroll, a Mohel book, Book of Psalms, five Megillot, and Perek Shirah. His illustrations are strongly influenced, like those of other Hebrew manuscript artists of the period, by printed illustrated books (especially the Amsterdam Haggadah of 1695 and 1712), but introduced new images and an attractive freshness of approach. In 1736 or earlier he was appointed scribe to the Imperial Library in Vienna. This fact was proudly noted by him on the title pages of many manuscripts he produced, often also in Latin and other languages. His calligraphic work included non-Hebrew manuscripts as well, including the Book of Psalms in Latin.
bibliography:
E. Naményi, "La miniature juive au xviie et au xviiie siècle," in: rej, 116 (1957), 61–63; V.B. Mann and R.I. Cohen (eds.), From Court Jews to the Rothschilds: Art, Patronage, and Power 1600–1800 (1996), 112–14, 170–76; N.Z. Roth, "Ha-Ẓayyar ha-Amami Aharon Schreiber Herlingen," in: Yeda Am, 5 (1958), 73–79 (Heb.); S. Sabar, "Seder Birkat ha-Mazon, Vienna, 1719–20 – The Earliest Illustrated Manuscript of Aaron Herlingen of Gewitsch," in: Dov Rappel Festschrift (in press); M. Schmelzer, "Decorated Hebrew Manuscripts of the Eighteenth Century in the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America," in: R. Dan (ed.), Occident and Orient (1998), 331–51; U. Schubert, Jüdische Buchkunst, vol. 2 (1992), 87–90.
[Shalom Sabar (2nd ed.)]