Smallest medievel Hebrew manuscript sells for $340,000 at auction in Jersualem

The smallest-known miniature medieval Hebrew manuscript has sold for $340,000 in auction in Jerusalem.

The fifteenth-century Italian  manuscript was previously held by a private collector for nearly 40 years.

Constructed from a single sheet of parchment, the miniature manuscript is cut into roundels 5.5cm in diameter, in a circular shape.

The pages contain a machzor, or festival prayer book, for the Jewish holidays, including Passover, Shavuot, Sukkot, Rosh Chodesh, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Due to its limited size, the manuscript  has an abridged version with selected sections rather than the full prayer text, and includes selected piyyutim – liturgical poems – for the High Holiday, as well as a complete Passover Haggadah from the Italian tradition.

The roundels are arranged in seven rows, with seven roundels in each row, for a total of 98 written pages, so the reader can fold them in different ways to see different prayer sections. The entire manuscript can be folded behind a single roundel for easy storage.

The illuminated manuscript features ornamental foliate designs of delicate leaves and branches in green, pink and burgundy on the initial word panels, and contains illustrations of an angel blowing a shofar next to a trumpet-bearing figure at the beginning of the Kol Nidrei prayer.

The Haggadah section includes illustrations of  the Four Sons;  Rabban Gamliel and other figures in contemporary dress holding a wine goblet at the blessing over the second cup; figures with matzah and bitter herbs; and animals, including a leopard, rabbit, and others.

Only a few Christian and Muslim manuscripts are similar to this manuscript.

The best-known is the Codex Rotundus, a 226-page “Book of Hours” – a Christian devotional manuscript written and illuminated in Bruges during the 15th century, and known as Rotundus for its circular shape.

And several manuscripts of the Quran cut into miniature octagons were produced in Iran and Turkey in the 16th and 17th centuries, but were written on paper rather than parchment.

 Meron Eren, founder and chief executive of the Kedem Auction House Founder which sold it said: “We know of only two other similar Hebrew manuscripts, and we can say that neither comes close to the size and magnificence of this manuscript. It is the most unique we’ve ever seen.”

Last week it had been on view at University Archives, an auction house in Wilton, Connecticut, ahead of its sale in Jerusalem on Tuesday.