This work offered at Sotheby’s New York (26/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) was believed to have been produced in southern Germany by a talented scribe and artist known only as Abraham. It dates from the late 13th or early 14th century and is known as the ‘Luzzatto High Holiday Mazor’.
Exhibiting a distinctive and elegant Hebrew script, it contains the liturgy for the two holiest festivals in the Jewish calendar, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
In excellent state of preservation, it also boasts a distinguished provenance: the magnificent library of Samuel David Luzzatto (1800-65), an Italian-Jewish scholar, poet and theologian.
When that library was dispersed after his death this volume was acquired by the Sotheby’s consignor, L’Alliance Israélite Universelle, a Jewish institution dedicated to education.
