Illuminated ketubbah from Holland

The ketubbah is the Jewish marriage contract, a legal document setting out the financial and matrimonial obligations of the husband toward the wife, read aloud and given to her during the ceremony. In several communities, it became a medium for illumination and calligraphy. In Amsterdam, the wealthy Sephardic community of Portuguese origin produced, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, ketubbot adorned with etched or illuminated frames, in which the calligraphed text is surrounded by architectural porticoes, figures, and floral motifs. These documents, copied on parchment, bear witness to the visual culture of this merchant community, in connection with Dutch printing and engraving of the Golden Age.