Marriage Contract. Text in brown ink, on vellum, Italian square Hebrew script. Uniting members of the Canton and Sullam Families

KETHUBAH.

Mantua

10th Kislev, 1756

Arched rectangular form, textual borders. Text within portal supported by spiral columns. Elaborate surrounding border richly decorated in gilt and vibrant multi-colors, foliate and floral tendrils encircling the twelve signs of the Zodiac (ordered from right to left, as accords with the Jewish Calendar). Allegorical personifications of the Four Seasons within circular vignettes at corners. Two friezes above: The arabesque knot of conjugal love (referring to Song of Songs 1:13) flanked by doves; at top, divided crowned cartouche supported by cherubs containing crests of the two Families. “A virtuous woman is a crown to a husband” within scrolled ribbon (Proverbs 12:4). The signatory witnesses to the Marriage Contract are Aaron ben Joseph Baruch Cases the Physician and Jacob Raphael ben Simchah Judah Saraval

Two similarly decorated Marriage Contracts also dating from the 1750’s are in the collections of the Israel Museum and the Cluny Museum, Paris. See IMC, Stieglitz Collection 217 and V.A. Klagsbald, Jewish Treasures from Paris (1982) no.143. Also cf. S. Sabar, Ketubbah: Jewish Marriage Contracts of the Hebrew Union College, Skirball Museum and Klau Library (1990) nos. 17 and 164

Magnificent Kethubah decorated in the Venetian style. All the participants were members of prominent aristocratic Italian Jewish families. The Canton Family financed in 1532, the building of the “Scuola Canton” the second oldest synagogue in Venice. Jacob Saraval (1707-1782) was a man of letters and a musician, he was appointed Rabbi of Mantua in 1752. Among his correspondents were Jacob Emden and Benjamin Kennicott. (For detailed presentation of other distinguished personages relating to this Kethubah, see S. Simonsohn, History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua (1977) index). Members of the Canton(i) and Sullam families reside in Venice and Mantua to this day