# Hebrew Micrography

> A Jewish scribal art in which lines of minute Hebrew script, usually the Masoretic notes that guard the biblical text, are written so that the line itself draws: interlaced frames and star rosettes on full carpet pages, and animals, knights, fish and grotesques in the margins. From a distance the page reads as a pen drawing, close up as text. Begun in the earliest dated Hebrew Bible codices of the late 9th century, it flourished in Yemen, Sepharad and Ashkenaz and lives on in ketubbot, micrographic portraits and the work of Jewish scribes.

- Period: c. 895–present
- Where: Middle East & North Africa, Southern Europe, Central Europe, Western Europe
- Origin: Hebrew Bible codices written in Tiberias (Palestine) and Egypt from the late 9th century, where the Masorah, the notes that list and count the words of the biblical text, was written into figured shapes: the Cairo Codex of the Prophets, penned by Moshe ben Asher in Tiberias and dated by its colophon to 894/5, already has carpet pages built from Masoretic lists. The art spread to Yemen, to Sepharad (Spain and Portugal) and to Ashkenaz, where the figurative masorah of northern France and Germany wrote knights, animals and grotesques into the margins, as in the biblical codex Elijah ha-Naqdan copied in 1239; Ashkenazi and Sephardi micrography had their heyday in the 13th to 15th centuries. Egyptian ketubbot were decorated micrographically from the 12th century and Italian ones from the early 17th; micrographic pictures and portraits followed in the 18th and 19th centuries, many of them reproduced by lithography, and Jewish scribes and calligraphers still practised the art in the late 20th century. The carpet pages of medieval Hebrew Bibles have long been compared with those of Qur'ans, the geometric, abstract decoration of the earliest codices was 'in keeping with the iconoclastic nature' of the Islamic art of their time, and Ashkenazi micrography fills its interlace with the animals and grotesques of Gothic marginalia, but the borrowing concerns the ornament: the method of drawing with the text itself, Avrin judged, seems to have no parallel in other ancient or medieval art.
- Branch: Traditions & vernacular
- Also known as: Micrography, Microcalligraphy, Figured masorah (masora figurata), Micrographic carpet pages
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/hebrew-micrography/

## Use it with care

Micrography is written from sacred text: biblical verses, the Psalms, blessings and the Masorah of the Hebrew Bible, which contain the names of God, and Jewish practice forbids throwing away writings that contain the name of God (they are stored in a genizah and buried), so keep such text off disposable packaging, floors, clothing and logos. For commercial or ephemeral work, write non-sacred text such as the client's own words, or follow the custom of not writing divine names in full (for example ה׳, HaShem, 'the Name', in place of the Tetragrammaton). Never draw God as a figure, even in written lines: even the figurative masorah of medieval Ashkenaz kept that prohibition (Attia). Never fill a silhouette with pseudo-Hebrew, scrambled letters or a sacred verse as texture: image models produce illegible fake Hebrew, so treat any generated design as a layout sketch only, and never present it as a historical manuscript. Have every word chosen and checked by a fluent reader, ideally a sofer (scribe) or a micrographer, and commission Jewish scribes and calligraphers, who have kept micrography alive to the present day (Avrin), rather than tracing manuscript pages. Ketubbot are marriage contracts with legal and religious force, and some observant readers are uneasy with figurative images, so ask how the audience will receive a figure written in sacred words; credit the work as Jewish and name its region (Tiberian, Egyptian, Yemenite, Sephardi, Ashkenazi or Italian) instead of a generic 'mystical' Hebrew.

## How it works

- Draw every outline with a line of minute, readable script instead of a pen stroke, so the picture turns back into text when the reader comes close.
- Write the words of the text the page serves, such as Masoretic lists, Psalms, blessings or the scribe's colophon, in their proper order and spelling; never use letters as filler.
- Build carpet pages and column frames from symmetric interlace, circles, diamonds and knots around a central circle, eight-pointed star or hexagram, and let lions, dragons, fish, knights, the candelabrum or the tree of life stand alone in the margins beside the text or on the carpet page.
- Turn the writing with the shape: run lines round circles, along diagonals and upside down, at a fraction of the size of the main text, so two scales of script share the page.
- Keep the drawing in one ink on parchment or paper, and add gold or colour only around the written line, never in place of it.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Framed panels](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/framed-panels/) (defining)
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (characteristic)
- [Radial & concentric](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/radial-and-concentric/) (characteristic)
- [Organic flow](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/organic-flow/) (characteristic)
- [Column grid](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/column-grid/) (occasional)
- [Isolated object](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Layered information](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/layered-information/) (defining)
- [Horror vacui](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/) (characteristic)
- [Extreme scale contrast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/extreme-scale-contrast/) (characteristic)
- [Repetition & rhythm](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/) (characteristic)

### Typography
- [Brush & pen calligraphy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/brush-and-pen-calligraphy/) (defining)
- [Rotated & vertical setting](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rotated-and-vertical-setting/) (defining)
- [Tight setting](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/tight-setting/) (characteristic)

### Colour
- [Monochrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/monochrome/) (defining)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (defining)
- [Earth & mineral](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/earth-and-mineral/) (characteristic)
- [Jewel & metallic](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/jewel-and-metallic/) (characteristic)
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (characteristic)
- [Non-representational](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/non-representational/) (characteristic)
- [Geometric primitives](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-primitives/) (characteristic)
- [Biomorphic curves](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/biomorphic-curves/) (occasional)
- [Distortion & exaggeration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/distortion-and-exaggeration/) (occasional)
- [Angular & zigzag](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/angular-and-zigzag/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (characteristic)
- [Paper & letterpress bite](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/paper-and-letterpress-bite/) (characteristic)

### Ornament
- [Geometric tessellation](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-tessellation/) (defining)
- [Borders & frames](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/borders-and-frames/) (defining)
- [Abundant decoration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/abundant-decoration/) (characteristic)
- [Folk & sacred symbols](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/folk-and-sacred-symbols/) (characteristic)
- [Floral & vegetal](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/floral-and-vegetal/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (defining)
- [Typography only](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/typography-only/) (defining)
- [Pattern & repeat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pattern-and-repeat/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Pen, brush & ink](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pen-brush-and-ink/) (defining)
- [Hand-painted](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-painted/) (occasional)
- [Lithography](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/lithography/) (occasional)

### Tone & intent
- [Spiritual & sacred](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/spiritual-and-sacred/) (defining)
- [Calm & contemplative](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/calm-and-contemplative/) (characteristic)
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (occasional)
- [Authoritative & institutional](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/authoritative-and-institutional/) (occasional)

Avoids: Type as image, Full polychrome, Experimental & distorted, Illusion of depth, Gradients, Fluorescent & neon, Grotesque & neo-grotesque, Straight photography, Ornament-free

Palette: #efe4cc, #2b211a, #6b4a2f, #b8923a, #e3c08c, #2f4f7a

Typefaces: Square Hebrew book script (ketav ashuri, ketav merubba) in its regional hands: the Oriental (Tiberian and Egyptian) script of the early codices, Sephardi and Ashkenazi square, and the Yemenite square script of the Sana'a Pentateuch, The minute script of the Masorah magna and parva, written by the same scribe at a fraction of the size of the biblical text, in which the figured lines themselves are drawn, Large vocalised lemmas against small unvocalised catchwords, the two scales of script inside the Masoretic lists of the Cairo and Leningrad carpet pages, Ezra SIL (SIL International, SIL Open Font License), a digital face for Biblical Hebrew with vowel points and cantillation that follows the printed Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: for reference and for the text beside a design, never as a substitute for written micrography

Known for: Cairo Codex of the Prophets, copied, vocalised and given its Masorah by Moshe ben Asher in Tiberias, dated by its colophon to 894/5 (the date is debated), formerly in the Karaite synagogue of Cairo: eleven carpet pages in gold and colour, six of them combining ornament with text written in figured shapes, mostly Masoretic lists; Leningrad Codex, written, masorated and vocalised by Samuel ben Jacob in Fustat (Cairo) in 1008, National Library of Russia, Firkovich B 19 A: sixteen carpet pages at its end, decorated in gold, blue and red and drawn in Masoretic lists, verses from Psalms, Deuteronomy and Isaiah and the colophons, including a design round a Magen David (f. 477r) and an eight-pointed star round a colophon (f. 489v); Vat. ebr. 14, a biblical codex copied by Elijah ben Berakhiah ha-Naqdan in northern France (Normandy) around 1239, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana: forty-seven figures written in micrographic Masorah, mostly standing alone in the inner margins or at the foot of the page in place of the Masora magna, among them Abraham as a horseman dressed like a knight, with helmet and spurs (f. 12r); Pentateuch from Spain, last quarter of the 14th or first quarter of the 15th century, British Library Add MS 15306: Masorah written in micrographic form, often as figures, animals and patterns, and 18 full-page panels of micrographic design; Sana'a Pentateuch, Yemen, 1469, British Library Or. 2348, attributed to the scribe Benaiah ben Saadia: carpet pages with ten fish whose outlines and scales are written in verses from the Psalms (ff. 38v–39); Catalan Micrography Mahzor, a 14th-century Barcelona festival prayer book, National Library of Israel MS Heb. 8° 6527: a full-page cycle of micrographic panels, studied by Dalia-Ruth Halperin (Brill, 2013); Beryl Reiss, micrographic portrait of the prophet Jeremiah, completed 1837, written with words from Jeremiah, Lamentations and Judah Halevi's Songs of Zion (Library of Congress, Hebraic Section); Moses Elijah Goldstein, the Book of Jonah written as a galleon, lithograph, Frankfurt am Main, 1897 (Library of Congress, Hebraic Section; the LoC notes an earlier version of the same design dated 1891 in the Sir Isaac Wolfson Museum, Jerusalem, inscribed with the name Jacob Soffer, possibly the artist or the printer)

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Influenced by: [Islamic Geometric & Calligraphic Tradition](https://stylogeny.com/styles/islamic-geometric.md) (c. 690–present)
- Alike in its design choices: [Ethiopian Ge'ez Manuscript & Haräg Illumination](https://stylogeny.com/styles/ethiopian-manuscript.md) (c. 500–present), 70% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Thai Yantra (Yant) Diagrams](https://stylogeny.com/styles/thai-yantra.md) (1700–present), 70% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Vyaz (Ornamental Slavonic Lettering)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/vyaz-lettering.md) (c. 1230–present), 64% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Persian Nastaʿlīq Calligraphy (Qiṭʿa, Chalipa and Siyāh-mashq)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/persian-nastaliq.md) (c. 1400–present), 64% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Celtic Revival Illumination & Lettering](https://stylogeny.com/styles/celtic-revival.md) (1861–1951), 63% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Maghrebi Script (Maghribi Calligraphy of al-Andalus and North Africa)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/maghrebi-script.md) (c. 900–present), 63% alike

## Sources

- Leila Avrin, 'Micrography', Jewish Heritage Online Magazine (http://www.jhom.com/topics/letters/micrography.html: definition as minute script written into abstract patterns or the shape of objects, animals or human figures; possibly late 9th century, Palestine and Egypt; a 'uniquely Jewish art' whose tradition 'has been sustained until the present day'; the Moshe Ben-Asher Codex of the Prophets, 895–96, Cairo, Karaite Synagogue, with internal and external micrographic masorah; the earliest codices geometric and abstract, 'in keeping with the iconoclastic nature of contemporaneous Islamic art'; Yemenite zenith in the 15th century with simple geometric designs and Psalms favoured for carpet pages; complex non-figurative interlace in Spain; Ashkenazi (Franco-German) interlace inhabited by animals and grotesques, 'common marginalia in Gothic illuminated manuscripts'; heyday of both in the 13th–15th centuries; Egyptian ketubbot from the 12th century; Italian ketubbot from the early 17th century; portraits of royalty in the 18th century and of rabbis, authors and leading Zionists in the 19th, lithography; 'In the late 20th century Jewish scribes and calligraphers continued to practice the art'; motifs from lions, dragons and unicorns to jousting knights, candelabra, the tree of life and the Magen David)
- Elvira Martín-Contreras, 'Exploring Hebrew Carpet Pages through their Texts', Sefarad 80:1 (2020), pp. 7–24, https://doi.org/10.3989/sefarad.020-001 (Cairo Codex: colophon 894/5, Moshe ben Asher, Tiberias, date under discussion, eleven carpet pages in gold and colour, six with figured text, manuscript currently considered lost; Leningrad Codex: 1008, Fustat, Samuel ben Jacob, sixteen carpet pages at its end 'decorated in gold, blue and red' with Masoretic lists, biblical verses and colophons, shaped as circles, diamonds, squares, a hamsah and eight-point stars, the Magen David on f. 477r and the eight-pointed star on f. 489v; large vocalised lemmas against small catchwords in geometric shapes; Masora the most frequent text; carpet pages of Qur'ans and Hebrew Bibles compared by earlier scholars; n. 4, after Avrin 1981, micrography 'seems to have no parallel in other traditions of ancient or medieval art')
- Library of Congress, 4 Corners of the World blog, Sharon Horowitz, 'Micrography in the Jewish Tradition' (2018), https://blogs.loc.gov/international-collections/2018/02/micrography-in-the-jewish-tradition/ (earliest dated example the Ben Asher Codex, 895–6, Cairo; the minute text usually draws the outline; geometric designs in early codices; peak in Europe in the 13th–15th centuries after Avrin; Beryl Reiss's Jeremiah, 1837, inspired by a painting by Eduard Bendemann; Moses Elijah Goldstein's Jonah lithograph, Frankfurt, 1897, with a correction note on an earlier version dated 1891 in the Sir Isaac Wolfson Museum, Jerusalem, inscribed with the name Jacob Soffer, 'possibly of the artist or of the printer')
- Elodie Attia, 'Editing Medieval Ashkenazi Masorah and Masora Figurata: Observations on the Functions of the Micrography in Hebrew Manuscripts', Sefarad 75:1 (2015), pp. 7–33, https://doi.org/10.3989/sefarad.015.001 (Vat. ebr. 14 copied by Elijah ben Berakhiah ha-Naqdan in northern France (Normandy) around 1239, with regular, ornamental and figurative Masorah; forty-seven figurative elements composed of micrographic letters, isolated drawings in the inner margins or at the foot of the page replacing the Masora magna, no carpet pages; Abraham as a horseman dressed like a knight, f. 12r; 'the figurative representation of God remains strictly prohibited')
- CSIC, Biblioteca Tomás Navarro Tomás, 'Códice de Profetas de El Cairo: description', https://biblioteca.cchs.csic.es/Codice-Profetas-Cairo/en/Descripcion.php (colophon 894/5, Moshe ben Asher, Tiberias; eleven carpet pages in gold and colour; Masora annotations occasionally arranged in geometric patterns; dating debated)
- Wikipedia, 'Leningrad Codex', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leningrad_Codex (1008, Samuel ben Jacob, National Library of Russia, Firkovich B 19 A; sixteen pages of decorative geometric patterns; a carpet page with a star bearing the scribes' names)
- British Library, Archives and Manuscripts catalogue, Add MS 15306, https://searcharchives.bl.uk/catalog/032-003367308 (Pentateuch, Spain, 1375–1424; masorah in micrographic form, the masorah magna often shaped as figures, animals and patterns; 18 full-page panels of micrographic design)
- Biblical Archaeology Society, 'A Thousand Words: Sana'a Pentateuch', https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/department/a-thousand-words-sanaa-pentateuch/ (Sana'a, 1469; carpet page with figural, floral and geometric patterns and ten fish written in text from the Psalms), with the British Library shelfmark Or. 2348, the attribution to Benaiah ben Saadia and ff. 38v–39 after Book Riot, 'Sana'a Pentateuch', https://bookriot.com/sanaa-pentateuch/
- Dalia-Ruth Halperin, Illuminating in Micrography: The Catalan Micrography Mahzor – MS Hebrew 8° 6527 in the National Library of Israel (Leiden: Brill, 2013; The Medieval and Early Modern Iberian World 51), record and description at Open Library, https://openlibrary.org/books/OL31132970M (a 14th-century Barcelona manuscript with a full-page panel micrography cycle)
- Wikipedia, 'Micrography', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micrography (minute Hebrew letters forming representational, geometric and abstract designs; customarily black and white; link with the second commandment)
- Wikipedia, 'Genizah', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genizah (writings containing the name of God may not be thrown away and are kept in a genizah until buried)
- Wikipedia, 'Names of God in Judaism', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Judaism (names of God that once written cannot be erased; HaShem, 'the Name', when written 'often abbreviated to ה׳'; some Jews avoid 'writing any name of God in full')
- SIL International, 'Ezra SIL', https://software.sil.org/ezra/ (Biblical Hebrew font following the printed BHS; SIL Open Font License)

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Hebrew Micrography”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/hebrew-micrography/