The Rothschild Vienna Mahzor Medieval Illustrated Hebrew Prayerbook
 to Auction with $7m Estimate

Sotheby’s is to offer the newly restituted Rothschild Vienna Mahzor, one of the most important illustrated Hebrew prayerbooks ever produced, next month.

The tradition of illustrated Hebrew prayerbooks flourished in southern Germany in the mid-13th century, with fewer than 20 examples surviving today. Dating to the early 15th century, the Rothschild Vienna Mahzor is one of only three in private hands. The manuscript is only the second medieval illustrated mahzor to come to market in more than a century. The Luzzatto High Holiday Mahzor at Sotheby’s in 2021 was sold for $8.3 million, setting a new auction record for an illustrated Hebrew manuscript.
 
The Mahzor - which contains the cycle of prayers for the entire Jewish liturgical year - takes its name from its 19th century owners, the Rothschild banking family. Salomon Mayer von Rothschild (1774–1855) acquired the manuscript in 1842 in Nuremberg and it was passed down through generations of the family. It was among the Rothschild's possessions seized by the Nazis who sent it to the Austrian National Library where it went unrecognized as looted property for decades. It resurfaced publicly in 2021 and will go under the hammer with an estimate of $5-7 million on February 5.
 
Completed in 1415 by the hand of a Jewish scribe, Moses son of Menachem, the Rothschild Vienna Mahzor was used during the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The liturgical customs indicate that this monumental manuscript was produced in Vienna, and its scale, opulence, and artistry indicate that it was created for communal use rather than private devotion. The pages brim with animals and fantastical creatures set in Gothic archways, curling scrollwork and burnished gold initial-word panels. The parchment was carefully prepared to receive vivid mineral and organic pigments (deep lapis blues, verdant copper greens, and cinnabar reds) whose brilliance remains after six centuries.