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Israel Museum Receives Rare ManuscriptThe second most expensive manuscript ever sold in Israel has been donated to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem by a New York collector. Known as the First Nuremberg Haggadah, the rare illuminated parchment written and illustrated by Joel ben Simeon around 1449 in Germany was given to the museum August 3 by Erica Jesselson, who had purchased it in April at a Sotheby’s auction in Tel Aviv for $1,017,750. “It’s like finding the Declaration of Independence in the attic,” Jerry Schwarzbard, special collections librarian at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan, said in the August 3 New York Times, describing the excitement the sale generated in Judaica circles. Israel Museum Director James Snyder characterized ben Simeon as “the Leonardo da Vinci of Jewish illustrators of the time” and the Nuremberg Haggadah as “the Mona Lisa.” The Haggadah is the Passover text recited at a Seder. The manuscript is handwritten in Ashkenazi Hebrew script on vellum and is richly decorated, showing dozens of biblical scenes in vivid red, blue, green, and yellow paint embellished with gold. “My late husband, Luddy, was determined to ensure that major manuscripts of Jewish heritage stay in Israel,” Jesselson told the Times. “Our gift fulfills Luddy’s dreams for the destiny of this supremely important work.” Posted August 13, 2001. |
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