Illuminated Ketubah on Parchment – Ancona, 1789

Illuminated Ketubah on parchment, recording the marriage of Aharon, son of the deceased Benyamin Abulafia with Sara Bracha daughter of the deceased Eliya Modona of Modena. Ancona, Adar 8, 1789.
The Ketubah's borders are adorned with colorful illustrations: the inner frame with two tall pillars, the outer frame with rich floral decorations and on top of the outer frame a heraldic shield with a double-headed eagle. Five lines in eloquent Italian writing appear on the lower part of the Ketubah – the text concerns the monetary arrangements in case one of the parties dies and has no descendants, as well as the signatures of the witnesses "Mordechai Raphael Shimshon Zemach – rabbi and Dayan in Ancona and Yehoshua Shabtai ben Shmuel of Ascoli".
Length: 64 cm, width: 47 cm. Good condition. Creases, slight cracks in the paint, cracks near the margins and three holes (with no loss of text or illustration). Framed: 83X67 cm.