More than 20 years ago, I was asked by a charitable institution to write an article about a Haggadah illustration found in the famous Rothschild Miscellany.
This was my first encounter with what is regarded as one of the greatest art treasures of our people. It is a beautifully ornamented and illustrated Hebrew manuscript of of circa 950 pages, produced in Italy towards the end of the 15th century. It contains a collection of more than 70 books and treatises, ranging from the Biblical books of Psalms, Proverbs and Job, Halahic and Aggadic compilations, to philosophical, historical and homiletical books of the Middle Ages. Included is also a prayerbook for the whole year with a Haggadah for Passover.
Of its circa 950 pages, 816 are illuminated in colors, gold and silver. The illustrations – landscapes, human and animal figures — were produced by craftsmen, who probably were trained by some of the great artists of the Italian renaissance. Many of the pictures, particularly those accompanying the Siddur, portray Jewish life and customs.
The writing and illustration of the manuscript was commissioned by Moses ben Yekutiel HaKohen, who seemingly, was not only a wealthy man, but a very learned person, combining Jewish knowledge with general culture and appreciation of the arts.
The Miscellany carries the name of Rothschild, because it had been in the possession of that family for about one hundred year. During World War II, the manuscript was stolen from the Rothschild collection in Paris. After the War, it was offered for sale by a Berlin dealer. The late Dr. Alexander Marx, librarian of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, recognized it as belonging to the Rothschilds. He alarmed the State Department and the Rothschild family and the Miscellany was restored to its rightful owners.
The Rothschilds donated the manuscript to the Bezalel National Art Museum in Jerusalem in 1957. In 1964, Bezalel was incorporated into the new Israel Museum, where the Miscellany can now be seen.
For the last 30 years, pictures from the Miscellany were printed in various publications. Some illustrations were even reproduced in enlarged form for display in private homes and public institutions.
About a year ago, I received a prospectus from a London publisher, “Facsimile Editions,” announcing the production, in cooperation with the Israel Museum, of a facsimile of the Rothschild Miscellany in a limited edition of 550 copies.
The publishers stated that a paper mill in Italy had made experiments for over a year to reproduce the opacity, texture and thickness of the “vellum” on which the manuscript was written, that the manuscript was completely taken apart in order to be photographed, eliminating all curvature, close to the spin; and that the three different types of gold — burnished gold, flat gold and powdered gold – found in the manuscript will all be faithfully copied by hand in the facsimile.
Every copy will be bound in wooden boards, covered in Morocco goatskin.
Together with the facsimile will appear an illustrated companion volume in which five Israeli scholars discuss different aspects of the Miscellany. One of the contributors is Dr. Israel Ta-Shema of the Hebrew University, a brilliant writer on rabbinic literature.
A short time ago, I was told by my good friend Shlomo Biegeleisen – the well known expert and dealer in Hebrew manuscripts and books, who nowadays often goes abroad in search of rare volumes – that work on the facsimile edition is well under way. Biegeleisen who is a personal friend of the publisher, added that quite a number of subscriptions for the facsimile were received from public collections and private collectors in the U.S.
The same publishers put out three years ago, a limited facsimile edition of the famous Kennicott Bible – a beautifully written and lavishly illuminated manuscript of the entire Bible, completed in Corunna, Spain in 1476 and now in the possession of the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The edition was acclaimed as one of the most beautiful facsimiles ever produced.
The Jewish Press, Friday, June 3, 1988 p. 20