Mandrakes in an Ashkenazic Bible: Cultural Transfer as Attested to by a Thirteenth-Century Masorah Figurata

Micrographic illustrations, which were added to biblical texts by Western European masoretes from the 11th century onward, enabled them not only to transmit important philological information, but also to promote exegetical opinions. One case in point is the masora figurata on fol. 33r in MS Vat. ebr. 14, an Ashkenazic manuscript of the 13th century.

From hints given in the philological text of this figurata, the somewhat cryptic motif can be identified: The drawing features two anthropomor­phic man­drake roots, possibly one `male` and one `female,` and a dog that is tied to one of the roots. This illustration appears to be the oldest extant depiction in a Jewish work of an an­cient myth that purports that mandrakes are magical plants which kill any living being that up­roots them – in the full-fledged version of the myth, this is through the plant`s deadly cry. As a solution to the problem that harvesting the root thus presents, the myth re­com­mends tying a dog to the mandrake and inducing the animal to rip it out, which leaves the dog dead but the human gatherer alive.

Textual and pictorial witnes­ses that could relate to the myth were investigated, not only those that mention mandrakes ex­plicitly but also those that use other names which might refer to the same plant. The timeframe under consi­dera­tion in this paper stretches from antiquity up to (and even a little be­yond) the 13th century; both Jewish and Gentile traditions are included. As a result of this survey, we conclude that Elijah the scribe was probably less influenced in his decision to pick this design by Jewish sources than by the popular Christian mainstream culture he lived in, and that he felt comfortable identifying dudaim with the mystical mandrake root.