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- Title
SEPHARDIC PRINTED KETUBBOT ON THE BALKANS.
- Authors
DAUTOVIĆ, VUK
- Abstract
Jewish community in the Balkans goes through a sequence of transformations during the 19th century. For Jews who live at the territory Serbia, changes begin with the process of liberation from the Ottoman rule, followed with the founding and developing of Serbian state. The community had to function firstly in the Principality and later on Kingdom of Serbia, as well as under the turbulent circumstances of dynastic changes at the beginning of 20 th century that led to the formation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Each of these phases influenced the shifts in a shape of the cultural model, and directed the relation between communal privacy and public identity integral to the wider sphere of the society. Ketubbot made by the end of 19th and the beginning of 20th century became serial printed prototypes, which support the ideal of contemporary civil state and modern society. They were produced all over the Balkans in lithographic printing offices. Their visual forms inherited the old tradition of representing the triumphal arch with symbolic decoration. They carry Jewish symbols like Magen David, Decalogue, or menorah, but also include state symbols like Serbian coat of arms, as well as emblematic pictograms of civil marriage and marital harmony like Concordia Maritalis, then putto and symbols of love - hearts. The illustration of this thesis is the examples of ketubbot printed in large Balkan cities: Belgrade, Sarajevo, Sophia and Thessaloniki from the end of XIX century to the beginning of XX. By replacing illuminated ketubbot with serial lithographic prints, Balkan Jews were participating in the contemporary social trends, but also creating their own visual culture, according to their personal needs. Holding on consistently to the emphasizing of an outstanding identity, they enriched visual decoration of ritual items by incorporating novelties in the manner of actual styles and contemporary achievements of Fin de siècle. The acceptance of social norms of wider community and civil concept of marriage, influenced the choice of visual representations, which found their place on ketubbot, bridging the gap between traditional and contemporary on the turn of the century.
- Subjects
JEWISH community centers; HISTORY of the Balkan Peninsula; OTTOMAN Empire; CIVIL marriage laws; MODERN society
- Publication
Zbornik, 2012, Vol 8, p065
- ISSN
0522-8328
- Publication type
Article