Medieval Hebrew Prayerbook Could Fetch $7 Million at Auction - Medievalists.net

"A lavishly illuminated medieval Hebrew prayerbook known as the Rothschild Vienna Mahzor will be offered at Sotheby's New York this February, with an estimate of $5-7 million US. Completed in 1415 for the High Holidays, the manuscript is among the rare illustrated mahzorim to survive from the Ashkenazi world. Mahzorim are Hebrew prayerbooks containing the liturgy for the Jewish High Holidays and festivals, and only a small number of illustrated examples from the Middle Ages are known to survive."

"The Rothschild Vienna Mahzor was completed in 1415 by a Jewish scribe named Moses, son of Menachem, with its scale and splendour suggesting that it was made for communal use rather than private devotion. The manuscript's decoration is described as dense with animals and fantastical creatures framed by Gothic architecture, with curling scrollwork and gold panels. The book's vivid colour palette-lapis blues, copper greens, and cinnabar reds-is still bright after six centuries."

The Rothschild Vienna Mahzor is a lavishly illuminated Hebrew prayerbook completed in 1415 for the High Holidays. The manuscript was produced by the scribe Moses, son of Menachem, and its scale and splendour indicate communal rather than private use. Decoration features dense animals and fantastical creatures within Gothic architectural frames, curling scrollwork, gold panels and a vivid palette of lapis blues, copper greens and cinnabar reds. Illumination shows influence from the Lake Constance school, possibly linked to Jewish refugees after the Black Death. The mahzor is among fewer than twenty surviving medieval illustrated examples, estimated at $5–7 million at Sotheby's.

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