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The manuscript of the Schocken Bible was inscribed and illuminated at the end of the 13th century in southern Germany. It comprises 131 sheets of very thin fine quality parchment, each measuring 152 x 225 mm. Each page is divided into three columns of 70 lines. The text is accented and inscribed in small Ashkenazic square letters. The detailed Massoretic notes are written in two lines above the text and three below, while the epitomized notes are at the sides, in two lines. The scribe's name was, it seems, Chaim. The frontispiece is an illuminated page decorated with 46 medallions, each containing miniature illustrations of stories from the Bible. The subject matter, reading from right to left across the page is as follows:
line one:
Adam and Eve and the serpent; Adam and Eve driven
from Paradise; Cain slaying Abel; Noah's Ark; Noah
planting a vineyard; The Tower of Babel.
line Two:
Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; Abraham
sacrificing Isaac; Isaac blessing Jacob; Esau returning from
the chase; Jacob's dream; Jacob wrestling with the angel.
line three:
Joseph dreaming of the sheaves; Joseph dreaming
of the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars; Joseph meeting a
certain man (angel); Joseph's brethren tending the
flocks; Joseph stripped of his coat; Joseph descending into
Egypt.
line four:
Potiphar's wife and Joseph; the dreams of
Pharaoh's butler and baker.
line five:
Joseph interpreting the dreams of the butler and
the baker; Pharaoh dreaming of the seven cows.
Line six:
Joseph interpreting Pharaoh's dream of the
seven years of grain; Joseph as Vizier; the brethren before
Joseph; the brethren returning to Canaan; Benjamin bidding
Jacob farewell; Benjamin before Joseph.
Line seven:
Judah and Benjamin before Joseph; Joseph making
himself known to his brethren; Jacob and Joseph before
Pharaoh; the bondage of the Israelites in Egypt; the building
of Pithom and Ramses, Moses in the ark of bulrushes and
Pharaoh's daughter.
Line eight:
Pharaoh's daughter handing Moses over to
Jochebed; the Burning Bush; Moses tending the flocks, Moses
and Aaron before Pharaoh; the Exodus; Moses dividing the Red
Sea.
Line nine:
The drowning of the Egyptians in the Red Sea;
Miriam and the women of Israel celebrating the triumph in
song and dance; the giving of the Law; the Spies and the
Bunch of Grapes; "And the earth opened her mouth"
(Korah and his company); Baalam riding his donkey and the
angel.
The manuscript has an Italian binding from the middle of the 17th century made of wooden plates covered in silk with silver decorations. One of the decorations depicts a hand pouring water over a pair of hands - the levirate symbol. On another, there is a shield bearing the inscription "Isaac son of Samuel Levi Walli, died 1680 in Modena (Italy)".
