The Interplay of Images and Writing in Mafteaḥ Shelomoh: Two Experiments for Escaping from Prison

Abstract

Mafteaḥ Shelomoh, the Hebrew adaptation of the Clavicula Salomonis, contains a remarkably large number of visual elements, including images and other text-structuring means. This article compares the use of images and image captions of one segulla (an instruction for a magical procedure) in two different manuscripts of the Sefer Mafteaḥ Shelomoh: the ms Oriental 14759 (The British Library, London), and the ms Gollancz. It tries to show how the scribes of the manuscripts were involved in a kind of meta-textual criticism when arranging the textual material anew, adding captions to images and obtaining missing material from alternative sources.