Dagmara Budzioch completed her joint PhD (thèse en co-tutelle) at École Pratique des Hautes Études and Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Her thesis focused on the mass production of decorated Esther scrolls (megillot Esther) in Italy during the second half of the 17th century. Since then, she has worked on postdoctoral projects at several institutions, including Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas – Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales in Madrid, the University of Wrocław, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. She also undertook a research project funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation.

Dagmara’s research interests revolve around Jewish book culture in the early modern and modern periods. She focuses particularly on Jewish book art, the relationships between Jewish manuscript and print cultures, and the role of Jewish women in book culture. Her investigation into the history, production, and art of decorated Esther scrolls culminated in the 2019 publication of a book on megillot from the 17th and 18th centuries. She has also presented her findings in articles and at numerous international conferences, congresses, and workshops.

Dagmara’s current project aims to explore the production, materiality, and liturgical role of manuscripts containing the Five Scrolls (Chamesh Megillot) from medieval Ashkenazi communities. By analyzing a large collection of these manuscripts—primarily biblical codices—her research will address gaps in the scholarship by examining socio-cultural contexts (for example, the integration of these five books into festival liturgies, palaeography and codicology (for example, scribal practices), and visual elements. This study aims to deepen the understanding of the significance of the Five Scrolls in Jewish religious life during the Middle Ages.

Books

2019

• The Decorated Esther Scrolls from the Jewish Historical Institute and the Tradition of Megillot Esther Decoration in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries [Zdobione zwoje Estery ze zbiorów Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego na tle tradycji dekorowania megilot Ester w XVII i XVIII wieku]. An Outline [Zarys problematyki] (vol. 1), Reproductions [Reprodukcje] (vol. 2), Jewish Historical Institute [Żydowski Instytut Historyczny]: Warsaw.

Electronic publications

2018

• Dagmara (together with Sharon Liberman Mintz, the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York) cataloged the collection of sixty-four decorated Esther scrolls from the Klau Library, Jewish Institute of Religion at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati (view here, accessed November 16th, 2025).

2020-2021

• Dagmara created a digital catalogue of decorated Esther scrolls, available online as a section of the Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art developed by the Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (view here, accessed November 16th, 2025).

Articles

2013

• ‘An Illustrated Scroll of Esther from the Collection of the Jewish Historical Institute as an Example of the Gaster I Megilloth,’ Jewish History Quarterly [Kwartalnik Historii Żydów] 247, pp. 533–547.

2016

• ‘Italian Origins of the Decorated Scrolls of Esther,’ Jewish History Quarterly [Kwartalnik Historii Żydów] 257, pp. 35–49.

2021

• ‘Verzierte Ester–Rollen illustriert von dem Prager Kupferstecher Philipp Jakob Franck’, in Annett Martini (ed), Seltene Kostbarkeiten: Die Wolfenbütteler hebräischen Schriftrollen, Wolfenbütteler Forschungen 163, Herausgegeben von der Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel, Wiesbaden, pp. 106–117 and pp. 140–144.

2025

• ‘Esterrollen im Kontext’, in Annett Martini (ed), Materialisierte Heiligkeit. Jüdische Buchkunst im kulturellen Kontext [Exhibition catalogue], De Gruyter: Berlin, pp. 221–252.

forthcoming

• ‘Paola bat Abraham Ha-Sofer and the Jewish Scribal Craft in the Middle Ages’, in Simha Goldin, Andreas Lehnertz, Maria Stürzebecher, et al. (eds), Jewish Craftspeople in the Middle Ages: Objects, Sources and Materials, Studia Judaica. Rethinking Diaspora 5 (De Gruyter: Berlin).

• ‘Hand-Colored Decoration and Other Manuscript Insertions in Hebrew Incunables,’ in Magdalena Herman, Małgorzata Łazicka and Karolina Mroziewicz (eds), Rethinking Colour: Printing Colour and Painting Prints in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, Library of the Written Word – The Handpress World (Brill Academic Publishers: Leiden).