Over the more than 650 years that have passed since this manuscript
of the Mishneh Torah was created, it has passed through many hands.
Various annotations and citations indicate that important
Ashkenazic rabbis hat access to the manuscript, for example Jakob
Weil, a well-known 15th century scholar and rabbi in Nürnberg,
Augsburg, Bamberg and Erfurt. Later notes of ownership make clear
that the manuscript reached such distant places as the Ottoman
Empire, England, Kurdistan and Jerusalem. The page 1021 of the
Mischne Tora-manuscript presents a full-page illustration with
decorated portal architecture in Gothic style. Two thin pillars,
lengthened in Mannerist style, support a heavy tympanum, decorated
with floral scrollwork on a blue background, in which gold letters
spell out the chapter title Sefer schoftim (“Book of Judges”).
There are five medallions, two of which show the silhouette of an
attacking bird of prey.
