THE ROTHSCHILD MISCELLANY WITH ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY VOLUME, JERUSALEM: THE ISRAEL MUSEUM; LONDON: FACSIMILE EDITIONS, 1989

THE ROTHSCHILD MISCELLANY WITH ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY VOLUME, JERUSALEM: THE ISRAEL MUSEUM; LONDON: FACSIMILE EDITIONS, 1989

Facsimile Volume: 473 folios (approx. 8 1/8 x 6 1/4 in.; 207 x 158 mm) printed by offset lithography (in up to twelve colors) on specially milled, Italian, 160-gsm, uncoated, neutral pH, “vegetable parchment” paper, each leaf shaped and aged to match the original; 816 (of the total 946) pages hand-illuminated with raised burnished gold, flat gold, powdered gold, silver, and vibrant, delicate colors. Fine-grain morocco goatskin blind-tooled in Mudéjar style and secured by four oxidized sterling silver clasps on morocco thongs, attached to the binding by silver nails; the facsimile number (104) stamped into the bottom board next to the spine using small steel dies; spine in five compartments with raised bands; spine and edges of binding slightly scuffed; title and publisher name on spine. Housed in a cloth-bound, hinged slipcase edged in morocco, lightly scuffed and a bit threadbare in places.

Commentary Volume: 256 pages (46 in full color) printed on mould-made, cold-pressed Magnani 160-gsm paper, including an unbound limitation slip stamped and signed by representatives of the publishers; minor soiling on the unbound limitation slip. Dimensions, binding, and slipcase designed to match those of the facsimile volume; spine in five compartments with raised bands; title and publisher name on spine; slipcase lightly scuffed and a bit threadbare in places.

Limited facsimile edition – number 104 of 550 copies stamped and signed by representatives of the publishers – of “the most lavish of all illuminated Hebrew manuscripts,” and likely the most exquisite facsimile of any Hebrew manuscript ever created.

Commissioned by the wealthy Cremona-based banker Moses ben Jekuthiel ha-Kohen (Mosé di Consiglio Sacerdoti of Friuli) and executed in Northern Italy between 1465 and 1478, the Rothschild Miscellany (MS Jerusalem, Israel Museum 180/051) is a monument to Renaissance Jewish civilization. Consisting of thirty-seven distinct texts – a veritable all-in-one library of biblical, liturgical, custumal, historical, philosophical, calendrical, halakhic, midrashic, poetic, parodic, moralistic, and scientific treatises – the volume became the framework for an unprecedented program of illumination illustrating, in about three hundred miniatures, almost every aspect of daily life in a Jewish household of the period. Indeed, by Leila Avrin’s assessment, “No other Hebrew manuscript equals the richness and scope of the illumination of this Miscellany,” in recognition of which, in 2013, it was inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

The present facsimile edition represents the culmination of four years of unstinting efforts by Michael and Linda Falter to achieve the most accurate and faithful reproduction of the original Miscellany possible. This bibliographic and technical masterpiece is accompanied by a companion volume including learned essays about the Miscellany written by leading scholars of Italian Jewish history, medieval Hebrew literature, art history, paleography, and codicology.

Provenance

“For the Family of Richard D. Levy” (loose dedication slip)

Literature

Leila Avrin, “Illuminated Hebrew Manuscript Facsimiles,” Ars Orientalis 20 (1990): 189-195.

Christopher de Hamel, The Rothschilds and their Collections of Illuminated Manuscripts (London: The British Library, 2005).

Luisa Mortara Ottolenghi, “The Rothschild Miscellany MS 180/51 of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem: Jewish patrons and Christian artists,” in Diana Rowland Smith and Peter Shmuel Salinger (eds.), Hebrew Studies: Papers Presented at a Colloquium on Resources for Hebraica in Europe Held at the School of Oriental and African Studies University of London 11-13 September 1989/11-13 Elul 5749 (London: British Library, 1991), 149-161.

Facsimile Editions Website (https://www.facsimile-editions.com/en/rm/)

MS Jerusalem, Israel Museum 180/051 (http://beta.nli.org.il/he/manuscripts/NNL_ALEPH000180139/NLI) (accessible from within the National Library of Israel only)