How to Date a Rothschild

Abstract

David Wachtel ms 8892 in the collection of the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary (jts) is a lavishly illustrated Hebrew prayerbook produced in Italy in the late fifteenth century. Known as the Rothschild Mahzor, its recent history has been well attested in both scholarly literature and in the popular press. 2In the aftermath of a devastating fire that destroyed over 70,000 volumes in April 1966, the Seminary Library received many donations of books in response to its worldwide appeal for aid in replenishing its holdings. In December of the same year, Baron Edmond de Rothschild of the French branch of that illustrious family presented the mahzor to the Seminary Library.3 The manuscript had descended in the Rothschild family through Edmondo father Maurice (1878-1957) who in turn had inherited it from his own father, the famous philanthropist and patron of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel, Baron Edmond James de Rothschild (1845-1934). A handwritten note in French found in the manuscript described the contents of the mahzor and related that the manuscript had been completed on 24 Adar, in the year 252 (i.e., March-April 1492) in the city of Florence in Tuscany [...fini le 24 Adar de Vannee de la creation 252 ( =MarsAvril 1492) en la ville de Fiorimi en Toscane ]. The Seminary included this information in subsequent press releases and publications, including a partial facsimile edition that appeared in 1983. The dating of 1492 was in full agreement with Rothschild family records, which had consistently catalogued the manuscript as having been produced in that year.4 Naturally, this information seems to derive from the text of the mahzor itself, which contains, interestingly, two separate colophons (figs. 1 and 2): a draft version on folio 477V, the final leaf of the manuscript, as well as an illuminated version on folio 469v.5The texts of the two versions vary only slightly and both are extremely elaborate and extensive, each comprising a page and a half of text beginning on the recto and culminating on the verso of their respective folios. The final paragraph of the colophon, which contains the dating information, reads in part: