Israel’s National Library to showcase medieval, Renaissance Hebrew manuscripts

The four manuscripts that will go on display are together estimated to be worth between $8 million and $15 million, according to Sotheby’s.

By JNS

The National Library of Israel in Jerusalem will host a three-day exhibition next week of four rare medieval and Renaissance Hebrew manuscripts from the upcoming “Magnificent Judaica” auction at Sotheby’s in New York City, the Israeli institution announced on Sunday.

On display will be:

A richly illuminated Jewish holiday prayer book (mahzor) created by the celebrated 15th-century scribe-artist Joel ben Simeon.

A large-scale Ashkenazic Pentateuch (Torah manuscript) from Germany, circa 1300, 17.7 inches in height.

A lavishly decorated 15th-century Roman rite mahzor from Ferrara, Italy, that combines Hebrew calligraphy with sumptuous gold leaf and pigments crafted alongside Christian artists.

A 15th-century manuscript of Rabbi Moses of Coucy’s influential 13th-century code of Jewish law, also known as Sefer Mitzvot Gadol (Semag), color-coded to express the structure of the legal text.

The four manuscripts together are estimated to be worth between $8 million and $15 million, according to Sotheby’s.

Ben Simeon is one of the most celebrated Jewish scribe-artists of the 15th century.

Born in Germany and active for much of his career in northern Italy, ben Simeon developed a distinctive artistic language.

His manuscript, created in Italy around 1475, features pages embellished with delicate line drawings of animated figures and fanciful hybrid animals.

The images are moreover positioned to relate directly with the prayer texts: a man joyfully blowing the shofar, an extremely rare depiction of a medieval Chanukah menorah, a faun-like creature performing the Sukkot lulav and etrog ritual, and hundreds more.

The Ashkenazic Pentateuch contains the Five Books of Moses, accompanied by the Aramaic Targum (translation), the Five Megillot (scrolls), and Haftarot (conclusions or partings).

This monumental volume features letters decorated with Gothic figures, hunting animals, fantastical grotesques, and hybrids, and is one of the largest known Hebrew Bible manuscripts in existence.

The rare items will be on display on Nov. 1-3, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Free gallery talks in English will be given by Sharon Liberman Mintz, international senior specialist/Judaica at Sotheby’s, and in Hebrew by Dr. Chaim Neria, curator of the Haim and Hanna Solomon Judaica Collection at the National Library of Israel.

The National Library of Israel, founded in 1892, is dedicated to preserve and sharing the history and culture of the Jewish people worldwide and of Israelis of all backgrounds and faiths.