The Montefiore Mainz Mahzor

CultureGerman
Titles
  • The Montefiore Mainz Mahzor
Datec. 1310-1320
MediumIlluminated manuscript on parchment; codex of 299 leaves, each ruled in ink, pricked, and written in black and red ink in Ashkenazi script
DimensionsClosed: 4 × 16 × 12 in. (10.2 × 40.6 × 30.5 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Brown Foundation Accessions Endowment Fund. Restoration supported with generous contributions from the TEFAF Museum Restoration fund; Joan Morgenstern; and Helaine and David Lane and Family
Object number2018.124
Current Location
The Caroline Wiess Law Building
200 Brown Gallery
Exposé

Explore Further

ProvenanceRhineland, perhaps c. 1310-20, with the terms ha-kohen (fol. 154r) and ve-ha-levi (fol. 283r), possibly alluding to the owners; known effacement of some of the words (fol. 121 r-v); Italian ownership, by the 16th and 17th centuries (1); Samuel David Luzzato (1800-1900) (2); Estate of Luzzato, 1865; purchased from estate by Solomon Hayyim Halberstam (1832-1900), by 1865 (3); purchased by Moses Montefiore, in memory of his late wife, between 1888/1889-c.? (4); The Judith Lady Montefiore College, Ramsgate (5); sold at New York, Sotheby’s, Important Hebrew Manuscripts from the Montefiore Endowment, 27-28 October 2004, lot 165 (sold for 321,500 USD); placed on deposit at the Jüdisches Museum, Berlin, 2004-2010; purchased by [London, Sam Fogg Ltd], possibly, 2010-2018; purchased by MFAH, 2018

1 Noted by the marginal annotations in Italian added to fol. 178r with words such as “molto ma…”, “…con questo lo faezo (?), fol. 178r
2 He was an Italian philologist, poet, and biblical exegete with his notes on fols. 286r-287r and a printed blue-edged paper spine-label inscribed “43” is perhaps his notation.
3He was a Polish scholar and bibliophile, inscribed with the collector’s “No .238” on the first flyleaf, by 1865.
4It was acquired with 411 other manuscripts from the Halberstam collection between 1888 when Moses Gastor became Principal of the College and 1899 when the majority of the College’s manuscripts were transferred on deposit to the Jews’ College, London and where they remained for more than a century.
5 The College was founded in 1869 by Moses Montefiore (1784-1885) and considered “the most famous English Jew of his time, probably of all time”, The festival prayer book was catalogued by Hirschfeld shortly after their arrival in London. The Jews’ College book label printed in capitals “Montefiore / MS. [‘206’ inserted] Ha[lberstam] No. “238’ inserted also added in pencil to an old paper title-piece.

Exhibition History"New Light on Old Masters: European Art from Houston Collections," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 2, 2021–January 23, 2022

"The European Fine Art Fair," Seventh Regiment Armory, New York, May 5–May 10, 2022.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Labels:
Upper spine: collectors label
Upper spine: Paper fragments with hand written title
Mid spine: Library label
Interior front cover, paper label: MONTEFIORE / MS. / 206 / HA NO. 238 / LIBRARY

Inscription: Inscribed in ink, underlined, front loose endpaper, upper center: [illegible] 238

Loose card between front endpapers

Watermark, front loose endpaper, bottom: CN; top: [3 crescent moons with a face]
Watermark, back loose endpaper, top: [3 crescent moons with a face]

Catalogue raisonnénone

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Illuminated pages.
c. 1583
Leather bound illuminated manuscript with lead seal; ink and pigment on parchment
36.54.A,.B
Book of Hours (The “Mors Vincit Omnia” Hours)
c. 1510
Illuminated manuscript on parchment; bound in leather
BF.2015.19
Overall recto
c. 1330
Illuminated manuscript on parchment
2022.96
Overall recto, closed.
Tom Hück
2018–2022
Woodcut, printed recto and verso on four sheets of Japanese Paper using Tom Hück's Outlaw Black Relief Ink by Gamblin and an overleaf printed on black paper with white ink; the three leaves of the triptych connected with printed stickers; edition 19/30
2023.219.A-.C
Frontispiece.
c. 1569-1599
Illuminated manuscript
36.53
Leaf Vessel #203
Kay Sekimachi
2003
Bigleaf maple leaves and kozo paper
2007.1570
Broadway
Miguel Ángel Rojas
1996/2010
Coca leaves, steel needles with museum putty on the wall
2014.748
Box with Sycamore Leaves
Mary Merkel-Hess
1997
Sycamore leaves and abaca paper
2009.1159
The Wild One
Misha Kahn
2015
Lutindzi grass, banana leaves, cactus, bone, wood, other grasses, and glass
2016.25
Deliciae variarum insigniumque scripturarum (Delights of Various and Distinguished Scripts)
Gerard Gauw
1604–1605, published 1649
Bound book, 52 leaves
BF.2013.5
Transparent Migrations
Amalia Mesa-Bains
2001
Mirrored armoire, 16 glass leaves, wire armatures, small gauze dress, lace mantilla, assorted crytal miniatures, shattered safety glass
2019.28
Effects of Sunlight, St. Peter's Colonnades
Hubert Robert
c. 1762
Pen and brown ink and brown wash with white pigment on laid paper, laid down on laid paper with blue (partially faded to green) laid paper border and ruled in black ink
2023.190