The Joanna S. Rose Illuminated Book of Ruth was designed and illuminated by Barbara Wolff. The accordion-fold manuscript is written on both sides, in Hebrew and English by the Jerusalem-based calligrapher Izzy Pludwinski.
Title on English title page: The Book of Ruth.
With an introduction in English by Joanna S. Rose.
Decoration: 20 vignettes and a continuous landscape in gouache colors, with some accents and lettering in platinum, silver, gold leaf, and gold powder (Hebrew side) and 39 vignettes in black ink (English side).
List of illustrations: Thistle; Caper Bush; Staff, Seal, and Cord of Judah; Wheat; Barley; Stork; Maimonides's Floor Plan of the Temple of Jerusalem; Bird Wing; Sandal; Wedding Belt; Pull Toy; Myrtle; Bitter Vetch; Jackals; Birds; Goddesses; Plow; Wormwood; Sickles; Boaz Column; Querns; Weights; Threshing Fork; Sieve; Distaff and Spindle; Mirror; Comb; Cooking Vessels; Doves; Storage Jars; Threshing Board; Beer Jug; Beads; Wine cups; Lyre; Flute; Torah Crown.
The manuscript joins two other creations by Wolff, You Renew the Face of the Earth: Psalm 104 (MS M.1190) and The Rose Haggadah (MS M.1191), gifts of Joanna S. Rose in 2014 and subject of the 2015 Morgan exhibition, "Hebrew Illumination for Our Time: The Art of Barbara Wolff."
Book of Ruth