CULTURE
Sotheby’s will offer a rare 15th-century Hebrew prayer book by one of the few Jewish artists of the Middle Ages known by name, as the centerpiece of its Magnificent Judaica sale in New York on December 17, 2026.
The illustrated mahzor, a prayer book for the High Holidays and festivals, was created in Italy around 1475 by Joel ben Simeon, a German-born scribe and artist who worked across northern Italy. It carries an estimate of $3 million to $5 million. Hundreds of drawings fill its pages and respond directly to the prayers beside them, including a worshipper blowing the shofar, Moses receiving the Tablets of the Law, and one of the earliest visual records of a Hanukkah menorah.
Only twelve signed works by Joel ben Simeon are known, and Sotheby’s says this mahzor is one of just four still in private hands.
The auction house calls the sale the most valuable of its kind in its history. Other manuscript highlights include a Roman Rite mahzor from Ferrara, written by a Jewish scribe and decorated with gold leaf by Christian artists (est. $2–4 million); a monumental Hebrew Bible made in Germany around 1300, believed to be the only one of its type in private hands (est. $2–4 million); and an illuminated copy of Moses of Coucy’s legal code Sefer Mitzvot Gadol (est. $1–2 million).
The sale also features Judaica silver, including a miniature Torah scroll from Galicia, less than 2.5 inches tall and possibly the smallest on record (est. $450,000–650,000), and a 1776 Frankfurt flagon inscribed with the name of Rothschild dynasty founder Mayer Amschel Rothschild (est. $300,000–500,000).
Sharon Liberman Mintz, Sotheby’s senior Judaica specialist, described the manuscripts as works of «devotion, scholarship, and artistic achievement in equal measure.»
Highlights will be shown at the National Library of Israel in November and in London from December 4 to 9. The New York preview exhibition runs December 13 to 16.
The Bukharian Times