sliderarrowCloseMenushare_facebookshare_instagramshare_xshare_linkedinshare_threadsshare_shareshare_tranditionalshare_calendarshare_emailicon_threadsconnect_facebookconnect_instagramconnect_xconnect_youtubeconnect_atbtn_arrowhamburger-x
Skip to main content
Collections Menu

The Montefiore Mainz Mahzor

The Montefiore Mainz Mahzor

Public Domain

The Montefiore Mainz Mahzor
Artist
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. Restoration supported with generous contributions from the TEFAF Museum Restoration fund; Joan Morgenstern; and Helaine and David Lane and Family
Object number2018.124
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
Prints and Drawings
Object Type
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.
Published References Hirschfeld, Hartwig, Jewish Quarterly Review, 14 (January 1902), esp. p. 404, Cat. 206, reprinted in Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew MSS, of the Montefiore Library (London: 1904), esp. p. 62, Cat. 206. 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.

There are no works to discover for this record.

Unknown German