Sotheby’s Auction House announced that the world’s oldest and most complete Hebrew Bible has sold for $38.1 million. The highest bidder for the Bible, known as the “Codex Sassoon”, a 1,100-year-old manuscript, was Alfred H. Moses, the former US ambassador to Romania and Chairman of the American Jewish Committee. It was learned that the Bible was purchased on behalf of the supporters of the ANU Jewish People’s Museum in Israel and donated to the same museum, while the offer was one of the highest figures ever given for a book or document.
BELOW THE PRICE GIVEN FOR THE FIRST EDITION OF THE US CONSTITUTION
Sotheby’s Auction House noted that the price exceeded the $30.8 million paid for Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Leicester manuscript in 1994, while the figure given despite the $50 million estimate made in February and the 2021 paid for any book or document. It fell below the highest figure of $43.2 million awarded for the first edition of the U.S. Constitution.
NAME FROM THE FORMER OWNER
Written in the 900s, Codex Sassoon takes its name from David Solomon Sassoon, who bought the book in 1929 and was one of the most important collectors of 20th-century Jewish and Hebrew manuscripts. The book is said to be important because it serves as a bridge between Jewish oral tradition and the modern Hebrew Bible. The Codex Sassoon is also known to be older than the “Aleppo Codex”, a hardcover manuscript of the Hebrew Bible, and the “Leningrad Codex”, one of the oldest complete manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible.
Source: UAV